Why Training African Creatives Is Only Half the Job
Across Africa, creative development programmes are helping artists, filmmakers and entrepreneurs strengthen their skills and projects. But their long-term economic value depends on what happens next: whether that preparation leads to commissions, financing, distribution and access to markets.
Africa's creative industries have no shortage of initiatives designed to develop talent. From screenwriting laboratories and music incubators to creative entrepreneurship programmes, emerging professionals are gaining access to mentorship, technical skills and industry networks.
These programmes respond to real needs. Developing a television series, producing commercially competitive music or building a fashion business requires expertise that creative talent alone cannot provide.
Yet there is an important distinction between preparing someone for an industry and helping them build a career within it. A screenwriter can leave a laboratory with a stronger script but no production partner. A musician can complete a residency without securing distribution. An entrepreneur can learn how to pitch without finding a buyer.
The next challenge for Africa's creative development ecosystem is therefore connecting training to the businesses and markets capable of turning that preparation into paid work.
A finished project is not yet a commissioned project
The AuthenticA Series Lab offers an interesting example of how creative training is beginning to address this gap.
Run by the Realness Institute, a South Africa-based organisation supporting African film and television talent, in partnership with The StoryBoard Collective, the programme helps screenwriters develop original television series. Participants work with experienced mentors to produce a pilot script, series bible and professional pitch materials before presenting their projects to international industry professionals.
Its 2026 cohort includes Lateefah Mayaki from Nigeria, Ghanaian-Canadian Lindsey Addawoo, South Africa's Phumi Morare and Cameroon's Sahndra Fon Dufe. Selected from 144 applications across 27 countries, the four writers are scheduled to present their projects at Series Mania Forum in France in March 2027.
That final stage is particularly important. Series Mania Forum brings together producers, broadcasters, distributors and financiers, allowing writers to move beyond developing their ideas towards finding potential commercial partners.
AuthenticA also provides financial support during development and allows writers to retain the rights to their material. This matters because developing intellectual property takes time, while ownership determines who can negotiate its future use.
But a market-ready project is not necessarily a project that reaches production.
The programme's previous cohort presented four series at Series Mania in March 2026, including Kanaan by Kenyan writer Mona Ombogo and The Gospel According to Charlotte Nelson by Ghanaian writer Gamel Apalayine. In its subsequent retrospective, The StoryBoard Collective explained that participants were still seeking producers and co-production partners.
This does not diminish the programme's contribution. It highlights the difference between two outcomes: developing work to professional standards and securing the commercial relationships needed to produce it.
For creative development programmes, both matter. They simply measure different stages of progress.
When the market becomes part of the programme
Afreximbank's Creative Africa Nexus initiative, known as CANEX, approaches the question from another direction.
Rather than focusing exclusively on developing creative skills, CANEX brings together creative entrepreneurs, financiers, buyers and industry professionals. Its CANEX WKND event combines workshops and showcases with business meetings and investment opportunities.
The CANEX Deal Room is especially relevant. It allows creative businesses to present projects to financial institutions and investors considering debt or equity financing.
At CANEX WKND 2024 in Algiers, Afreximbank reported approximately $540 million in facilitated and agreed deals. These included a €245 million facility agreement involving New World Television for sports broadcasting rights across African markets and an announced $3 million facility supporting Tunisia's Mediwood Studios.
The event also hosted an angel-investment pitch session where investors committed $350,000 to three creative businesses, including Cameroonian fashion designer Kibonen Nfi.
These figures need to be read carefully. Commitments and financing agreements are not necessarily equivalent to funds fully disbursed, completed investments or revenue earned by creative businesses.
Nevertheless, they illustrate an important difference in programme design. CANEX is attempting to connect creative development with the institutions that control financing and market access.
Its 2026 edition, scheduled for November in Lagos, continues this approach through its Deal Room, industry showcases and business networking activities.
The wider lesson is that creative entrepreneurship requires more than business knowledge. It requires opportunities to transact.
A designer may understand pricing and production but still need wholesale buyers. A film producer may have a strong business plan but require financing and distribution agreements. A music entrepreneur may know how to build an audience without having access to the commercial infrastructure needed to expand.
Training can improve their readiness. Market access determines what they can do with it.
What happens after the workshop?
The gap between training and market access becomes clearer when programmes publish what happened to the projects they supported.
Burkina Faso's Ouaga Film Lab, established in 2016 to develop African film projects and connect filmmakers with co-production opportunities, provides a useful example. Its published 2017–2021 review followed 50 supported projects: four feature films had been completed, four were in post-production, six were in production, ten were in advanced development and sixteen remained at the writing stage.
These figures reveal something that participation numbers cannot. Creative development is a long process, and projects progress at different speeds. A completed film is a meaningful outcome, but so is securing financing that allows production to begin. A project remaining in development may still have potential, although further support is needed before that potential becomes a finished product.
Nigeria's Film Lab Africa, supported by the British Council, offers a more direct link between training and production. In 2024, a cohort of 60 emerging filmmakers received training before applying for production grants. Twenty films were subsequently funded and produced, including ten short films supported by grants of £5,000 each and ten smartphone-produced microfilms receiving £500 each. The films were showcased in Lagos, with the short-film recipients also invited to present their work in London.
The distinction between these examples matters. Ouaga Film Lab illustrates the longer development journey, while Film Lab Africa demonstrates how relatively modest production financing can help participants put their training into practice.
Neither example alone establishes whether participants subsequently built sustainable careers. But both offer a clearer view of progress than the number of people trained.
The next measure of success
There are good reasons why creative programmes often report applications, participants, workshops and completed projects. These figures are relatively easy to collect and demonstrate the reach of an initiative.
Commercial outcomes are harder to track. A television series might take years to secure financing. A musician may find a distributor months after completing a residency. An entrepreneur could meet a potential investor at an event but only finalise an agreement much later.
That makes long-term measurement difficult, although no less important.
For programme organisers and funders, more useful questions might include how many projects secured financing, how many reached production, which participants received paid commissions and whether new commercial relationships continued beyond the programme.
The results would also help reveal where support is missing. If many screenwriters leave laboratories with market-ready projects but few secure production partners, additional writing workshops may not be the most effective next investment. Producer networks, financing mechanisms or commissioning partnerships might make a greater difference.
There is also a responsibility on the demand side. Creative industries cannot develop sustainably through talent programmes alone if broadcasters, brands, publishers, distributors and investors are not creating enough opportunities to purchase or finance the resulting work.
The strongest programmes increasingly recognise this connection. AuthenticA brings writers into an international television market. CANEX places creative businesses in front of financiers. Film Lab Africa provides production grants, while Ouaga Film Lab tracks projects beyond their initial development.
Each addresses a different part of the journey.
For Africa's creative economy, the next step is connecting those parts more consistently, so that training becomes one stage in a functioning professional and commercial ecosystem.
The question is no longer simply how many African creatives can be trained. It is how many can turn that training into work, ownership, income and businesses capable of growing beyond the programme that supported them.
Sources :
Realness Institute, “AuthenticA Series Lab” rlns
The StoryBoard Collective, “Retrospective - AuthenticA Series Lab” storyboard-collective.org
Afreximbank, “CANEX WKND 2024 concludes in Algiers with over US $540 million in deals committed”
CANEX, “CANEX WKND 2026” wknd.canex.africa
Ouaga Film Lab, “Review 2017–2021” 2021:
British Council, “Film Lab Africa” British Council
Art Africa, “Film Lab Africa Shines at FilmAfrica 2024: A Catalyst for African Cinema’s Global Rise”
