Africa Soft Power Summit calls for stronger African ownership of culture, capital

African business leaders, investors, and creatives have called for stronger ownership of the continent’s cultural and creative assets, warning that Africa risks losing billions in economic value if it fails to control the systems that finance, protect, and commercialise its talent and ideas.

The Africa Soft Power Summit 2026 closed in Nairobi on May 22 after two days of discussions held under the theme Africa’s Compound Interest: Aligning Ecosystems of Finance, Creativity and Human Capital for Growth. The event examined how Africa can better connect finance, innovation, culture, and human capital to drive long-term economic growth.

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Speaking at the summit, Nkiru Balonwu said Africa must stop treating culture, capital and innovation as separate conversations if it wants to build sustainable economic power.

“Serious economies do not develop in fragments,” Balonwu said. “The countries and regions that shape the world align their capital with their culture, their talent with their markets, their innovation with ownership.”

The summit brought together policymakers, development finance institutions, investors, and entertainment industry leaders from across Africa and the diaspora, including Zainab Hawa Bangura, Ummi Bashir and Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe.

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Discussions focused heavily on intellectual property, creative financing, and women led economic growth.
Dbanj said African creatives are often recognised socially but struggle to access institutional funding because intellectual property is still undervalued.
“Our biggest collateral is our IP,” he said, revealing that Afreximbank had acquired equity in his platform rather than issuing a loan.

Rita Dominic also stressed the importance of ownership in the creative economy.
“Visibility gets you hired, but ownership gets you paid for life,” she said.

Speakers also urged African governments to treat the creative sector as a serious industry capable of generating jobs, investment and export earnings across multiple sectors of the economy.