Leaders in Africa’s creative industry have underlined the need for the continent to reduce its reliance on foreign-owned platforms and develop stronger homegrown systems for distributing and monetizing its own content.
They said more investment in local distribution infrastructure, intellectual property protection and digital platforms would enable the continent to capture greater value from its rapidly expanding creative and digital economy.
Overseas examples
Citing the success of China and India, Mawuli Gavor, a Ghanaian actor, producer and entrepreneur, said African countries should draw lessons from the two countries by building strong domestic audiences for locally produced content before seeking to expand into overseas markets.
“More than anybody else, we are the ones supposed to be consuming our own content before we expand it,” Gavor said during a virtual meeting organized by the Africa Prosperity Network last week.
