Ghana’s Creative Sector at Creation Africa Forum Lagos

The Creation Africa Forum’s second edition convened in Lagos in October 2025, following its 2023 debut in Paris and marking a shift in conversations about Africa’s creative industries. More than 1,000 participants from across Africa and Europe gathered at the Federal Palace Hotel for a forum connecting creative sectors with markets, investment, and international audiences.

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Held from October 16 to 18, the forum was launched by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and curated by MansA, Maison des Mondes Africains, with support from the Agence Française de Développement, Business France, BPI France, and the Institut français. It positioned itself as a platform for cooperation between African creative industries and European markets, linking high-potential sectors to investors, institutions, and global audiences.

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Creation Africa Ghana supported a delegation of 16 creative professionals, representing a broad cross-section of Ghana’s cultural and creative industries, from animation and immersive technology to sound design, digital fashion, publishing, gaming, and entrepreneurship.

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Three Days at the Intersection of Culture and Industry

The forum focused on sectors shaping the future of African creative industries, including TV series, animation, immersive technology, video games, webtoons, special effects, sound design, and digital fashion. Across three days, discussions returned to a set of recurring questions: how African content reaches global audiences without losing authorship, how representation is constructed in interactive media, and what artificial intelligence will mean for creators on the continent.

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Each day opened with short talks before moving into panels, debates, and working sessions. Pitch sessions brought projects face-to-face with producers, investors, and co-production partners. Clinic sessions provided direct consultations with industry experts. The Spin Doctor Lab focused on refining pitch materials ahead of funding conversations. B2B meetings were coordinated through a dedicated platform, giving those conversations a clear path beyond the room.

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More than a convening, the forum functioned as an industry engine, connecting projects to financing, creators to co-production partners, and ideas to markets.

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A “Heritage in Motion” exhibition ran throughout the three days, alongside a Lagos x Paris pop-up store, webtoon booths, video game demonstrations, and AR and VR installations that turned the venue into an immersive industry floor.

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Ghana’s Delegation and Contributions

Several members of the Ghanaian delegation contributed directly to the program. Eyram Tawia, Co-Founder and CEO of Leti Arts, served as a curator for the AR and VR segment. Baboa Tachie-Menson, Founder of Balm Labs, mentored participants in the Digital Fashion pitch sessions, working with creators developing projects for international collaboration. Nana Akosua Hanson, activist, writer, and creator of Moongirls, was featured as a case study under the session “Moongirls: From Book to Animation Movie.”

The session examined the movement of a Ghanaian story from page to screen, offering insight into adaptation, intellectual property, and the pathways available to African narratives. Among the forum’s case studies, Moongirls pointed to a larger reality. The stories exist. The work now is building the systems that allow them to travel.

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Ministers Signal an Africa-Led Creative Future

Jean-Noël Barrot, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, expressed France’s commitment to “speed up the tempo” of Africa’s driving force to the global creative culture. Hailing Nigerian video games on global platforms, success stories like Hugo Obi (founder of Maliyo Games) and Kalista Sy (Mistress of a Married Man, Screenwriter), Nollywood’s reach, and the global pull of Afrobeats from Burna Boy to Davido to Ayra Starr, he urged the room to “Keep making noise, keep inventing, and keep disrupting.”

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Nigeria’s Minister of Culture, Hannatu Musa Musawa, kept her focus closer to home, positioning the country’s creative industry as both a cultural force and an economic one, grounded in a nation of more than 240 tribes and a generation building its future through it.

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The forum concluded with a closing night soirée at Balmoral, featuring performances by Odumodublvck and The Cavemen from Nigeria, Queen Rima from Guinea, and Super Jazz Club from Ghana.

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