CANEX 2026: Nigeria Targets Jobs, Investment and Global Markets for Creatives
For a young filmmaker looking for an investor, a fashion designer seeking an international market, a musician trying to take a song beyond Nigeria or a creative entrepreneur struggling to access finance, the upcoming Creative Africa Nexus, CANEX WKND 2026, is expected to offer more than another platform for showcasing African talent.
The Federal Government says the event will focus on turning Nigeria’s creative strength into investments, jobs, business partnerships and access to international markets.
Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, stated this at a joint ministerial briefing on Nigeria’s preparations to host CANEX WKND at the ITF Skills House, Maitama, Abuja.
Musawa described CANEX as a strategic platform for connectivity, investment and growth, saying it would be one of the major creative economy platforms through which Nigeria would project its creative capacity to Africa and the rest of the world.
She said the establishment of the Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was driven by the need to give deliberate government attention and structure to a sector that had largely grown organically.
Nigeria’s music, film, fashion and cultural industries have already given the country a powerful global identity, but Musawa said the next challenge was to turn that creative influence into sustainable economic opportunities for the people working within the sector.
“This is a shared responsibility. It is not the responsibility of one ministry,” she said, explaining that the ministry was working with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank, because government could not deliver its economic diversification agenda through one ministry alone.
The choice of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts, popularly known as the National Theatre, as the venue for CANEX also carries historical significance.
Musawa said the event, coming almost 50 years after FESTAC ’77, would build on the cultural legacy of that landmark gathering.
“While FESTAC put the Black community on the global map, CANEX will build on that legacy to reaffirm Nigeria as Africa’s cultural and creative capital,” she said.
Beyond music, film, fashion and cultural displays, the minister said CANEX would highlight the infrastructure and reforms being developed to enable Nigeria’s creative industries to expand and compete globally.
She also commended Afreximbank President, Prof. Benedict Oramah, for his support for the development of Africa’s creative economy.
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, said the significance of CANEX would ultimately be judged by what happens after the event—not simply by the number of people who attend or the quality of exhibitions on display.
She described CANEX as a platform for trade, investment, enterprise development and market access, noting that global commerce was increasingly shifting beyond physical goods to services, technology, content and intellectual property.
For Nigeria, she said, this presented an opportunity to earn greater economic value from its creative talent.
“That means connecting our creators and creative businesses to finance, investors, distribution, technology and international markets. CANEX must translate connections into transactions,” Oduwole said.
She listed the expected outcomes to include new business partnerships, financing for creative enterprises, commercialisation of intellectual property, access to new markets and expansion of Nigerian creative businesses beyond the country’s borders.
“We want to see partnerships formed, financing mobilised, intellectual property commercialised, businesses entering new markets and Nigerian creative enterprises scaling beyond our borders,” she said.
According to the minister, achieving these goals will require more than the two ministries organising the event. Financial institutions, customs, immigration, payment and financial services providers, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts are also expected to play roles.
CANEX is also being positioned as part of Nigeria’s broader strategy to strengthen its place in African trade, ahead of the Intra-African Trade Fair scheduled to take place in Lagos in 2027.
Oduwole described Lagos as a strategic meeting point between Africa and the global creative economy, urging investors, businesses and creatives from across the continent to attend the event.
“So our invitation is clear: come to Lagos from November 5 to 8. Come ready to connect, to invest, to trade and to do business. Nigeria is ready to welcome Africa and the world,” she said.
CANEX WKND 2026, an initiative supporting Africa’s creative industries, is scheduled to hold from November 5 to 8, 2026, at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts in Lagos.
For Nigeria’s growing army of creatives, the real test may therefore begin after the curtains close: whether the meetings become contracts, the ideas become businesses, the talent becomes jobs and African creativity becomes a stronger source of wealth for the people who produce it.
