Afrexim Bank commits $200m as FEC okays Creative Economy Development Fund

The Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu has approved the establishment of the Creative Economy Development Fund to pool resources for those in the creative industry.

Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa revealed this shortly after the meeting, which held at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

She said the Ministry has gotten commitment from Afrexim Bank to the tune of $200 million to kick start the Fund.

“FEC gave approval for the creation of a creative economy development fund. This is a special purpose vehicle that will allow members within the creative economy to have access to funding and use their IP as collateral in terms of monetization.

“We identified very early on that the very basic structures in order for us to really tap into the potential of the creative economy was missing.

“So, we got to work in putting up those structures. IP policy is one of those very basic structures that was missing. We are working together with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and with the Ministry of Justice to ensure that we deliver IP policy, hopefully within maximum, at the very last phase, within the next two weeks,” she stated while briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting.

According to Musawa, the IP will allow creatives to use it to get collateral for access to funding.

“Again, one of the things that we identified was that members of the community, the creative community, cultural and creative community, have absolutely no access to funding.

“This is a special purpose vehicle that will give them funding that will be able to allow us to leverage funding that we’re getting. We already have commitment, for example, from Afrexim Bank that has committed to giving us $200 million and a number of other sources.

“So this is a special purpose vehicle that will allow us to give this funding to members within the community, and hopefully we’ll be able to really tap into the potential and reach our targets of economic expansion, creative expansion, cultural, expansion of course job creation, specifically for younger demographic,” the minister added.