Pan-African financial institution Afreximbank wants to launch a $1 billion African film fund

Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank, also known as Afreximbank, is preparing to launch a $1 billion African film fund in 2024 to support the continent’s fast-growing film industry.

Kanayo Awani, executive vice president of Afreximbank’s Intra-African Handelsbank, announced the initiative on Friday in the opening speech of the Canex (Creative Africa Nexus) Summit 2023 in Cairo.

She said the fund would oversee film financing, co-finance with major studios, finance African filmmakers and finance producers and directors of film projects across the continent.

Awani pointed out that Afreximbank has already announced a doubling of the financing it provides to the African creative sector to $1 billion at the 2022 edition of Canex and currently has $600 million in film, music and I have in fine arts, invested in fashion and sports projects. . .

“The very first film we financed recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival,” Awani said, adding: “The bank has several in the pipeline from Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, expected to be released in 2024 will be released on streaming platforms.

Awani said the African film and audiovisual industry currently accounts for $5 billion of the African continent’s GDP and employs an estimated five million people, with the potential to create more than 20 million jobs and an annual turnover of of $20 billion in the future to generate.

However, she noted that the sector faces several challenges, including limited access to funding and copyright infringement due to weak copyright laws, enforcement mechanisms and lack of awareness.

Other challenges include infrastructure and technology gaps, lack of capacity and skilled workers, and limited market access and international presence, meaning that African creative and cultural products often struggle to gain exposure and access to international markets.

In an earlier speech, German-Ghanaian actor Boris Kodjoe, whose credits include: Grey’s Anatomy And Ward 19said at the summit that African creativity is becoming increasingly influential on the world stage, but Africa has faced branding challenges due to external perceptions fueled by traditional media portrayals of poverty, famine, civil wars and migration on the continent.

He said this would change due to the increasing demand for culture-specific global content, citing statistics that suggest Africa is expected to account for up to 10 percent of global exports of creative goods by 2030, worth around $200 billion , or 4 percent of Africa’s exports will be produced. GDP.

HE Albert M. Muchanga, Commissioner for Trade and Industry of the African Union Commission, echoed these views in another speech.

“I reiterate my belief that Africa’s creative industries have enormous potential to be a source of employment and income to create the Africa we want – both income from intra-African trade and income from the rest of the world,” he said.

Muchanga called on African countries to transform their “tremendous potential” into plans and projects that produce tangible results, stressing the need to also invest in the protection of international property rights.

Canex is an initiative of Afreximbank focused on supporting Africa and the creative and cultural industries of the African diaspora by providing financing and non-financing instruments to stimulate growth.

The seven-day Canex Summit will take place from November 9 to 15 in Cairo as part of IATF2023, Africa’s largest trade and investment exhibition.

The pan-African financial institution Afreximbank was established in 1993 under the auspices of the African Development Bank.

Its headquarters are in Cairo with regional offices in the capitals of Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Nigeria and Cameroon.