Unite for Culture, Grow the Economy

The Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC) has called on stakeholders in the creative industry to convene a national dialogue to shape a unified cultural policy that promotes economic growth and deepens global relevance.

The Director-General of CBAAC, Mrs Aisha Augiee, made the call during the ongoing CBAAC Annual International Conference on Tuesday in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that CBAAC organises the conference in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos (UNILAG),  and the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies (IADS).

The two-day event is with the theme, ‘Cultural Tourism, Creative Economy and Sustainable Development in Africa’.

The event, which brought together stakeholders including cultural custodians, scholars, and artists, aims to deliberate on the cultural and economic future of the continent.

Augie said tourism was more than a journey, and culture tourism, not merely a measure of activity, but a foundational pillar of Africa’s economic revival.

She noted that tourism contributed $168 billion to Africa’s GDP in 2024, and was expected to create over 70 million new jobs in the coming decade.

Augie said the continent had enough heritage tours and indigenous art products already traveling the world.

“Growth without sustainability is not progress,  is a short-lived impulse.

“We cannot afford to let the momentum of African tourism and creativity become unsustainable or unethical,” she said.

A Professor of Educational Management and Planning at UNILAG, Sheidu Sule, in his keynote address, highlighted the economic and social benefits of Africa’s cultural assets.

“The creative economy is undoubtedly one of the most vibrant and rapidly growing sectors in the global business stream.

“It’s offering new vistas and high growth opportunities, especially for developing and enabling economies around the world,” he said.

According to Sule, the industry currently employs over 4.4 million Nigerians and is projected to generate two million more jobs by 2027.

The professor, however, decried Africa’s contributions to the global arts market, noting that it remained marginally low when compared to other regions of the world.

“Despite the enormous potential of cultural tourism and the creative economy sector as levers for sustainable development in Africa, the industry still suffers from some unmitigated challenges,” he said.

He said some of the challenges included inadequate policy formation to move the sector forward, intellectual debt, poor funding, insecurity, lack of a regulatory framework, and infrastructural facilities to produce cultural tourism.

Sule called for the development of national cultural policies aligned with the African Union’s Agenda 2060 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

He also recommended the creation of cultural hubs in rural and urban areas, a digital archive, improved transportation to heritage sites, investment in museums, theatres, and festivals, and stronger support for youth and women in the industry.

A former Director-General at CBAAC, Prof. Duro Oni, said anything done within arts, culture, and tourism, without an economic value, would become problematic.

Oni, who was also a former Dean of the Faculty of Arts, UNILAG, said if the nation wanted to harness the benefits in the industries, they would need to stop operating in silos.

He said there was an urgent need for the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism, and Creative Economy to host an all-inclusive stakeholders’ summit.

“Let everyone come and let each stakeholder say what they are bringing to the table,” he said. (NAN)