Transcript
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The speaker reflects on changing perceptions of Africa, renewed pride, and the idea of a continental renaissance. The segment closes by emphasizing the young generation’s role in building on that momentum.
as a unit of humanity and another.Even the data have changed.The data with which the world views one part of the world views the other.If you told me 48 hours ago that well, Nigeria I think you still hold the record for corruption in has changed.Go across the Atlantic and you'll find morality has swung and focused on us as an opportunity to keep that statistic.Render it um aggressively demanding.Uh ensure that we never go back to that point where we felt hypocritical to deny that negative statistic.And that this opportunity, I believe, is something which in in compels us to go back to the beginning when we felt we were the renaissance people of the world.That ours was a renaissance uh con- continent of the world.Uh that the rest of the world know their pride, their undeniable productivity, capability demonstrated in every direction.
That the period of our renaissance has come back.A renewed renaissance.And that challenge, of course, is to the young generation.An encounter like this for me is is an encounter for the young generation to build on the experience, but twist it.The Americans were using this expression.It bothered me for some time during the election.
this on the call at our global marketplaces.
The discussion shifts to access to capital for African creatives and how they can better present themselves to investors. A panelist responds with appreciation and begins outlining why the creative sector is gaining attention.
Let come to you, Natalie, because we also need to talk about access to capital.That has been stressed throughout the speeches earlier on in this session.And there was an interesting point made by Mrs.Awani from Afreximbank on just how fintech has managed to attract a lot of investment.And the biggest reason is they understand the investor lingo.Something that African creatives are yet to do.So, how do they better position themselves, package themselves in a way that investors see there's something here that is worth putting our money in?Can you Can you hear me?Yeah?Yes.Yes.So, uh thank you for the question, but let me start by a professor telling you how humble I feel to be sitting next to you today.Um thank you, Senator, for reminding us it's because of the pain, the resilience, and the perseverance of a father like you that we are sitting here today.
And I want to recognize that.
This section explains how attitudes among artists, parents, and financial institutions are changing, making creative work more accepted as a viable career. It also lays out four key levers: visibility, enabling conditions, connection, and educating banks about creative assets.
I I think, like it was said before, we all know the issues.We all know the reason why um the creative industry has not received for many years the attention and the the financing that it deserve.But I want to believe that today there's something different.And I want to believe that today there's something different because the mindset are changing.The mindset of artists, the mindset of parents, the mindset of financial institution like us.You know, I'm the mother of of of of four, and um when my daughter who went and studied in a Ivy League in the US started a very promising career in the tech industry told me that she wantedto stop everything and do photography.It took me some time to accept it, but I accepted it.And this is a conversation that in my time was not even possible to have with my parents.
So, I think that recognizing the value of creative as the mean of potentially it being a a real work um is changing for parents and for young people themselves.And this is where it start.The second shift that I'm seeing um I work for the IFC, which is the largest financial institution sole development finance institution solely focus on the private sector in the world today.And IFC has financed everything from manufacture to port to road to everything.Five years ago, you would have thought talked about creative industry in an institution like us, nobody would have listened to you.It took us to have a managing director who himself had been an artist and was an athlete to really push the institution to start thinking about creative industry as a real business opportunity and a real value for thecontinent.And 5 years after that, we have channeled close to 1.6 billion dollar in this industry.
And when I heard this number, even asked to the team, are you sure?Where What are we doing this?And and we are doing it.And the mindset is shifting.Now, we need to help the the the creative enterprise and artist to also be ready.And for me, it's um it's really four levers.And this is really the levers that we're using for any SMEs that is very applicable here.First, you start by visibility of those those creative artists.Today, technology, it's an opportunity in terms of visibility.So, we are able to have more data and we are able to identify those um creative artists.The second lever is around enabling them.Enabling them in terms of capacity, but also enabling them and we talked about it in terms of market access, in terms of regulatory framework environment, in terms of infrastructure logistics to be able to move their goods from one
country to another, etc.The third lever is connection.We have to connect them and really there I want to to congratulate Afrexim for event like this because this is where they are connected to the market and connected to other actors.But the last pillar that is really really important and we're putting a lot of work in that is around the education of financial institution.And for bankers it's still very difficult to understand that the collateral of an artist is a soft asset right or the data that is produced.The concept of when you you start in banking one of the first risk that you are learned to to look after is the risk of the single owner.But understanding that actually for an artist is not about the single owner risk, it's about the legacy that this artist that is going to leave and that is going to continue to to produce revenue in the future is
something that you have to work on with financial institution, but also for them to design the different tailor financing instrument that are applicable to the various the diversity of this sector.So all to say that it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of effort, but I think that there is a momentum today and we're moving in the right direction.
The conversation turns to Rwanda’s approach to making youth in the arts an economic priority and supporting creative businesses that trade across Africa. The minister begins by expressing gratitude and honoring Wole Soyinka before answering the question.
Fantastic.What I'm hearing from at least Professor In You is just the needs to recognize the value of the creative economy to begin with, right?Um Minister Mutoni, you've managed in Rwanda to make the youth in the arts an economic priority.What does that look like in practice, especially when you're looking at Rwandan creative businesses that want to grow and and trade across Africa for instance?What does that look like?
Good morning everyone.Can you hear me?
Yes, you're audible.
Thank you so much.Thank you.Good morning, everyone.Uh before I answer that question, I just want to express gratitude to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Afreximbank for the invitation extended to my country, Rwanda.It's a pleasure uh being in the city.Um and just like my fellow panelists, I want to start by acknowledging Professor Wole Soyinka.The moral courage you exhibited for Nigeria actually extended all the way to Rwanda.In 1994, when the rest of the world was debating whether or not it was a genocide against the Tutsi happening in my country, you were actually one of the most prominent voices who