At the 2026 Invest Nigeria Conference & Expo, hosted by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Our Group Founder & Executive Chairman Audu Maikori shared his thoughts on a defining opportunity for Nigeria: turning the global demand for its culture into sustainable economic value. Nigeria’s creative economy has reached a defining moment. From music and film to fashion, visual art, food and technology, Nigerian creativity is being consumed and celebrated across the world. But global visibility is only the beginning. The bigger question is whether Nigeria is building the businesses and systems that allow the country to capture more of the economic value its culture creates.
The question is no longer whether Nigerian culture can go global; It can. The challenge now is converting cultural influence into sustainable economic value. When exporting Nigerian culture is discussed, attention often goes to the finished product: the song, film, painting or fashion collection. But underneath all of these is intellectual property. A song streamed in London is an international transaction. A Nigerian film sold to an international platform is an export. The fact that these things do not move in containers does not make them any less important to the economy.
According to Audu, the challenge is not talent. Nigeria has never had a shortage of it. The challenge is what happens around that talent. Can creators access capital? Can they protect their intellectual property? Can creative businesses scale, distribute internationally and compete globally?
“Talent can create a moment. Infrastructure is what turns a moment into an industry.”- he stated.
That infrastructure includes capital, IP protection, distribution, technology, management, skills, data and access to international markets. It also means investing beyond the people seen on stage and supporting the businesses building the platforms, studios, technology and distribution systems behind Nigeria’s creative success. At Chocolate City, this thinking is part of the reason the group launched Founders Fund Africa with its partners, supporting founders building businesses across music, film and media, design and creative technology. The last twenty years have shown that Nigerian creativity can travel. The next twenty should be about making sure the businesses behind that creativity can travel too.
Nigeria has the talent. It has stories. It has the culture. The world already wants what Nigeria creates. Now, it has to build the industry around it.
