Frank Okon

The United Kingdom has launched a new Creative Fund aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s film, fashion and music industries by closing long-standing technical gaps that have limited local production capacity and forced parts of the sector to rely on overseas expertise.

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The initiative, unveiled by the UK-Nigeria Technology Hub, is a first-phase grants programme designed to support digital production, expand access to modern creative tools and encourage the responsible use of artificial intelligence across Nigeria’s creative economy. It is intended to help ensure that high-potential creative projects can be produced and completed locally, rather than being outsourced due to missing technical capacity.

The fund aligns with the priorities of the UK-Nigeria Economic Transformation and Investment Partnership (ETIP) Creatives Working Group and builds on commitments made during President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s state visit to the United Kingdom in March 2026. It also forms part of the UK Government’s broader Digital Access Programme, which supports digital development and inclusion in partner countries.

Implementation will be led by Tech4Dev, a Nigerian social enterprise focused on digital skills and economic inclusion, working in collaboration with the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub. Officials say the programme is designed not only to finance projects, but also to strengthen the underlying ecosystem that supports creative production.

The launch is backed by findings from a 2024 study on Nigeria’s creative innovation ecosystem, which surveyed more than 1,700 practitioners across seven states. The research estimates that Nigeria’s creative sector employs around 4.2 million people and contributes approximately $3 billion annually to GDP. However, it also highlights deep structural constraints that continue to limit growth.

According to the study, more than 80% of creative professionals are self-taught, fewer than 10% have access to formal financing, and a significant share of high-value technical work is still outsourced outside Nigeria due to limited local capacity. These gaps have created bottlenecks in areas such as post-production, sound engineering, visual effects and advanced digital design.

The new fund is designed to directly address these weaknesses. It will support projects across film, fashion and music that demonstrate strong potential for impact, scalability and job creation. Funding will also be used to close technical gaps by enabling access to specialised talent such as VFX artists, sound engineers, editors and design professionals, as well as digital production infrastructure including asset management systems, content delivery tools and rights management platforms.

Artificial intelligence is also expected to play a role, with selected projects encouraged to explore its application in production workflows, storytelling and creative innovation, provided it is used responsibly and ethically.

Oyinkansola Akintola-Bello, Director of the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub, said the initiative reflects a shift from policy commitments to practical implementation. She noted that Nigeria’s creative sector already generates significant economic value, and that the new fund is intended to help scale that impact by addressing gaps in skills, infrastructure and access to advanced tools.

She added that the goal is to ensure Nigerian creatives can produce world-class work within the country, rather than depending on external production ecosystems.

From the implementation side, Tech4Dev’s Country Manager for Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa, Abraham Akpan, said the creative sector sits at the intersection of technology, culture and entrepreneurship. He said the fund is designed to strengthen local talent pipelines while expanding access to tools, training and financing, particularly for groups that have traditionally been excluded from formal support systems.

The programme places emphasis on inclusion, with priority given to women-led enterprises, youth-led ventures and underrepresented communities. It is also structured to encourage co-investment from applicants, with proposals assessed based on technical quality, potential for impact and scalability.

The fund is open to creative companies, production studios, fashion enterprises and music labels with clearly defined technical needs. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis throughout the programme period.

Officials say the broader objective is to shift Nigeria’s creative economy further up the value chain, reducing reliance on external production services while building domestic capacity to support high-end creative output. In practical terms, this means enabling more post-production work, digital design and technical services to be delivered within Nigeria’s borders.

The initiative comes at a time when Nigeria’s creative industries are gaining global visibility but still face structural constraints that limit their full economic potential. While demand for Nigerian content continues to grow internationally, the lack of scalable production infrastructure has remained a key barrier to capturing more value locally.

By combining targeted financing with technical capacity building, the UK-backed fund aims to help bridge that gap. If successful, it could strengthen Nigeria’s position as a leading creative hub in Africa while also demonstrating how blended support for skills, technology and financing can unlock growth in emerging creative economies.