Shola Bamidele: From exporting culture to building African creative institutions

As Nigeria’s creative sector gains global acclaim through Afrobeats, Nollywood, and fashion, a deeper transformation is underway. Young creatives are moving beyond individual fame to build sustainable companies, protect intellectual property, and create institutions that can drive long-term economic growth.

In this exclusive interview with BusinessDay’s Anthony Udugba, Shola Bamidele, CEO and Founder of Loom Rooms, a creative hub in Egbeda, Alimosho, shares insights on the evolving creative economy. He discusses the shift from resilience-driven success to systemic support, the need for stronger infrastructure and policy, and how community-focused initiatives like Loom Rooms (part of the broader Da’Circles ecosystem) are nurturing the next generation of African creative entrepreneurs.

Bamidele emphasises that Africa’s creative future lies not just in cultural exports but in developing globally respected companies, fostering collaboration, and treating creativity as national infrastructure capable of delivering lasting prosperity. Excerpt…

The global conversation around Africa’s creative economy has shifted dramatically in the last five years. But how much of what’s being celebrated externally reflects what’s actually being built on the ground in Nigeria?

The celebration is deserved, but it’s only telling half the story. The world sees Afrobeats filling stadiums, Nollywood reaching global audiences, African fashion on international runways and creators influencing global culture. Those are incredible achievements, but they’re the visible outcomes of a much deeper story.

Behind every global success are thousands of creatives building with limited infrastructure. Producers working through unreliable electricity. Filmmakers stretching impossible budgets. Designers teaching themselves business because nobody else did. Creatives trying to understand contracts without legal support. We’ve become remarkably good at succeeding despite the system rather than because of it.

At the same time, I think something profound is happening across Africa. Young creatives are no longer simply asking, “How do I become famous?” They’re asking, “How do I build something that lasts?” They’re becoming founders, technologists, publishers, producers and entrepreneurs. More women are leading companies, directing films, managing artists and reshaping entire industries from positions of leadership.

That shift gives me hope because it signals a move from exporting culture to building institutions. The next chapter isn’t about proving Nigeria is creative. The world already knows that. It’s about proving that African creativity can build globally respected companies, intellectual property and institutions that create lasting prosperity here at home.

⁠Economists increasingly describe the creative sector as a viable alternative economic engine for Nigeria. What conditions would need to exist for that potential to be realised, not just talked about?

The first thing we need to change is our mindset. We still speak about the creative economy as though it’s entertainment. But it isn’t. It’s infrastructure.

Roads move goods. Ports move trade. The creative economy moves ideas, exports, tourism, technology, identity and influence. Once we begin treating creativity as national infrastructure, investment starts making more sense.

We need stronger intellectual property protection. Creative financing. Reliable data. Entertainment lawyers. Publishing companies. Animation studios. Gaming infrastructure. Better education. Consistent policy. But perhaps the biggest shift is cultural. One of the core philosophies at Loom Rooms is that everyone is creative. A mechanic solving a complex engineering problem is creative. A tailor redesigning a production process is creative. A teacher finding new ways to inspire students is creative. Creativity is really the ability to solve problems with imagination.

When a nation begins to see creativity that way, innovation stops belonging to one industry and starts transforming every industry. That’s when creativity becomes an economic engine rather than simply a cultural export.

When you look at how countries like South Korea or the UK have deliberately invested in creative infrastructure – policy, funding, institutions – what does that tell us about what Nigeria has chosen not to prioritise?

It tells me they understood something early. Culture isn’t just identity. It’s economic infrastructure. South Korea didn’t accidentally build K-pop. It invested in education, technology, export policy, intellectual property and institutions for decades. The UK didn’t accidentally become a global cultural exporter. It consistently invested in museums, arts funding, publishing, theatre, universities and creative clusters. Those countries treated creativity as something worth planning for.

Nigeria has largely depended on extraordinary individuals. Fortunately, Nigerians have extraordinary resilience. But resilience should never become policy. A country’s future shouldn’t depend on people succeeding despite the system. It should depend on systems helping ordinary people become extraordinary. The encouraging thing is that conversations are changing. The government is paying more attention. Private investment is increasing. Creative entrepreneurs are thinking beyond themselves. Now we need consistency.

⁠A lot of investment in Nigeria’s creative space has followed the money – music, film, and fashion. But what about the disciplines that aren’t commercially obvious yet? Who is building for them?

Innovation rarely begins where the money already is. It usually begins on the edges.

One thing I worry about is that we often wait for the rest of the world to validate an idea before we invest in it ourselves. By then, we’ve already lost part of the opportunity.

Today everyone wants to invest in Afrobeats because Afrobeats has proven itself. But who’s investing in gaming? In animation? In sound design? In archival storytelling? In AI-assisted creative tools? In publishing infrastructure? In creative technology? In documentary filmmaking that preserves our history? Those industries may not dominate headlines today, but many of them will define Africa’s creative economy over the next twenty years.

I also think experimentation deserves greater respect. Some of the most exciting creatives I’ve met aren’t trying to sound like what’s already popular. They’re blending indigenous sounds with electronic music, combining technology with traditional storytelling, exploring entirely new forms of expression. That’s how cultures evolve.

At Loom Rooms, we’ve tried to create an environment where experimentation isn’t discouraged simply because it isn’t immediately commercial. Creativity has always involved taking risks before markets fully understand them.

History teaches us that today’s niche often becomes tomorrow’s mainstream. If we only fund what is already successful, we’ll never discover what comes next.

⁠Loom Rooms operates at the intersection of community, development, and commercial creative work. How do you sustain something that is part social mission and part business in an environment that doesn’t always reward long-term thinking?

We’ve never believed that social impact and commercial sustainability are competing ideas. In fact, I think one strengthens the other. Loom Rooms is part of a much bigger vision called Da’Circles – an ecosystem built around one belief: creativity grows faster when different circles of people strengthen one another. Our philosophy is simple: link. Unite. Multiply. We link people to opportunities. We unite them through collaboration. We multiply knowledge by sharing it. Building in Egbeda, within Alimosho, was part of that philosophy. Egbeda literally means “a place where communities are formed”. We wanted to prove that opportunity shouldn’t have a postcode.

People often ask how we measure success. It isn’t by occupancy alone. It’s by transformation. In less than a year, we’ve seen Geexen, one of our artists, receive the PME New Wave Award. We’ve watched SVNTN D-I’s Lagos Party reach listeners in more than 70 countries. We’ve worked alongside artists like HoneyBelle and Kacy Jackson as they continue developing both creatively and professionally. Uduak Faith Abasi now hosts programmes on Eko FM after developing his broadcasting skills. Edmond Odey has expanded into brand management and website development. Snow of Africa has gone from being a videographer to registering and trademarking his own company while preparing to mentor young creatives in Egbeda.

For me, those stories matter more than occupancy rates.

⁠The creative sector in Nigeria is largely informal. Contracts are rare; intellectual property protections are weak. How significant a barrier is that informality to real industry growth?

It’s one of the biggest barriers to growth because informality creates uncertainty. Talent attracts attention. Trust attracts investment. If contracts are unclear, copyright isn’t enforced, and revenue isn’t transparent, investors hesitate, businesses struggle to scale, and creators lose confidence in the system. Professionalism isn’t about bureaucracy. It’s about creating an environment where people know they’ll be treated fairly. One of the most rewarding things we’ve witnessed at Loom Rooms has nothing to do with creative output. It’s seeing people begin to understand ownership. They start asking questions about publishing rights. About trademarks and so on. That’s incredibly encouraging because creativity without ownership rarely creates long-term wealth.

We constantly remind our community that talent may get someone to notice you, but professionalism determines whether they’ll work with you again. That’s why our philosophy is the following: Talent opens the door. Character keeps you in the room. Consistency builds the legacy. An industry becomes sustainable when that mindset becomes normal rather than exceptional.

⁠You’ve built Loom Rooms with partnerships across Warner Music Africa, Sarz Academy, and Africa Women in Entertainment Business. What does it tell you that those partnerships exist?

First, I’d like to clarify that our relationship with Warner Music Africa came through Left Eye Productions, the film and documentary company within the wider Da’Circles ecosystem. Loom Rooms itself has developed partnerships with organisations, including Sarz Academy and Africa Women in Entertainment Business, all of which reflect our belief that collaboration is one of the strongest forms of infrastructure. Those partnerships tell me something encouraging. They tell me that serious organisations recognise serious ideas. Vision matters more than geography.

People often assume opportunities only exist in certain parts of Lagos. Yet we’ve shown that organisations are willing to build relationships wherever they encounter professionalism, purpose and long-term thinking. At the same time, I think there should be many more partnerships across the ecosystem. No single organisation can build Nigeria’s creative economy alone. Everything has to become interconnected. That’s really what Da’Circles represents. The idea that different circles of knowledge become stronger when they intentionally connect with one another. I believe Africa’s next creative chapter will be defined less by individual success stories and more by collaborative ecosystems.

⁠If a young creative in Nigeria is deciding whether to invest three years building a career here versus relocating, what honest case would you make for staying?

I’d start by being completely honest. Nigeria is not the easiest place to build a creative career. There are genuine challenges. But there is also a genuine opportunity. We’re living through a period where entire industries are still being created. That gives young people an opportunity not simply to participate in those industries but to shape them. That said, I don’t think this is really a choice between staying and leaving. Travel. Learn. Study other cultures.

My experiences across Europe fundamentally changed how I think about creativity, business and community. The important question is what you do with that knowledge. Can you bring new ideas home? Can you build something that didn’t exist before?

I’d also tell every young creative something we repeat often at Loom Rooms. Talent opens the door. Character keeps you in the room. Consistency builds the legacy. Success rarely happens overnight. It’s built through habits. Through discipline.