By Adeola Kunle

FG Moves to Close Funding Gap in Nigeria’s Creative Industry

The Federal Government is stepping up efforts to address the shortage of funding facing Nigeria’s creative sector through the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises Programme, popularly known as iDICE.

The initiative is designed to create a more sustainable financing ecosystem for businesses operating in Nigeria’s expanding technology and creative industries.

Speaking at the QEDNG Creative Powerhouse Summit 2.0 in Lagos on Tuesday, the National Coordinator of iDICE, Ife Adebayo, said Nigeria possesses significant creative talent but lacks sufficient capital, infrastructure, skills and institutional structures to transform that talent into sustainable enterprises.

The iDICE Programme, implemented by the Bank of Industry, is a Federal Government initiative focused on supporting technology and creative businesses through skills development, enterprise support and access to finance.

Adebayo explained that the programme was structured to provide a progression from skills acquisition to business development and ultimately financing, rather than offering isolated government interventions.

A major component of the programme is the iDICE Fund of Funds, which has a minimum target capitalisation of $170.6 million.

The Bank of Industry appointed Kuramo Capital Management in July to manage the fund. The Federal Government, through iDICE, has committed $85.3 million as anchor funding, while Kuramo Capital Management is expected to mobilise an equivalent amount from private investors.

Rather than providing all the money directly to individual businesses, the fund will invest through venture capital and micro-venture capital funds targeting technology and creative enterprises.

Adebayo also disclosed that iDICE was nearing completion of the process of onboarding a fund manager that would make direct investments in businesses within the creative sector.

The programme also provides debt financing. According to the Bank of Industry, the iDICE Debt Fund and the Islamic Development Bank Murabaha Debt Fund have a combined $110 million allocation for technology and creative-sector startups.

Adebayo said the combination of equity and debt financing would provide creators and businesses with more options for raising capital.

“We have raw talent in abundance and trained, employable talent in shortage,” he said, identifying inadequate skills, limited capital and weak industry structures as some of the major obstacles confronting the sector.

He further revealed that the programme was collaborating with relevant government agencies to develop an intellectual-property securitisation framework. Such a framework could enable creative intellectual property to be assigned greater financial value and potentially used to support financing.

“Genius, in Nigeria, has always been forced to freelance,” Adebayo said.

The funding initiative comes at a time when Nigeria’s creative industries—including film, music, fashion and animation—are receiving increasing international attention but continue to struggle with limited access to institutional financing, intellectual-property protection and effective commercialisation.

Adebayo argued that creativity should no longer be regarded primarily as entertainment, stressing the need for Nigeria to establish the financial and institutional systems required to develop creative ventures into competitive businesses.

He pointed to South Korea as an example of how deliberate investment, infrastructure development and government policy helped transform cultural products into internationally successful exports.

According to him, Nigeria possesses comparable cultural resources but has yet to develop the structures required to unlock their full economic potential.

Beyond financing, iDICE is also investing in talent development. The Bank of Industry said it is establishing and upgrading digital and creative hubs across 66 institutions, including universities and polytechnics, to strengthen the pathway from training to employment and entrepreneurship.

The programme is jointly financed by the Federal Government, the African Development Bank, Agence Française de Développement and the Islamic Development Bank, with the Bank of Industry serving as the implementing agency.

Adebayo said the broader objective was to move Nigerian creatives from largely informal and underfunded activities into structured businesses capable of attracting investment, creating jobs and generating greater economic value.

He maintained that the sector could achieve significantly more if creative talent received the same level of structured financing and institutional support given to established industries.

“If we financed them like an industry instead of admiring them like a hobby,” he said, Nigerian creators could build businesses capable of competing on a much larger scale.

By Adeola Kunle