An Oil Mining Licence legally allows prospectors to extract petroleum from Nigeria’s oil fields. The other OML, Omolayole Management Lecture series, has offered extensive knowledge for Nigeria’s corporate entities to mine over the years.
The International Association of Students in Economics and Business, along with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and various other groups, recently invited Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor to speak at the 41st session held at the Metropolitan Club on Victoria Island, Lagos.
Owuor, a globally recognized author and pioneer in African cultural economics, presented a lecture on the unique topic of “Plotlines of Prosperity: African Stories, African Rights & African Returns.”
Anyone who has read or heard the provocative lecture is bound to have a renewed understanding of the arts in Africa. Owuor states, “Africa’s stories are not merely creative and cultural elements, but also independent intellectual assets, possessing untapped economic value that can foster growth and influence African markets…”
Securing creative autonomy involves developing structures such as intellectual property repositories, international royalty mechanisms, and regulatory systems, to turn narratives into valuable assets. Ultimately, Africa is at a pivotal moment, where viewing storytelling as a means to generate wealth, exert influence, and shape self-determination is crucial to prevent being relegated to a minor role in others’ tales.
She advocates for “the acknowledgment of intellectual property as key strategic points,” so that Africa’s “creativity is not only honored, but deliberately and strategically organized as a foundation of our (African) prosperity.”
She envisions an Africa whose economic value is not solely determined by mineral resources, but also by intellectual property assets that consistently produce income across global supply chains, allowing a book, for example, to be adapted into a film that continually generates royalties.
She emphasizes that Africa should not only create art for its own sake, but rather see art as “capital,” meaning it is “central to generating value,” and “not merely a form of soft power.” However, she expresses disappointment that Africa’s “policymakers and leaders are strangely hesitant to recognize the tremendous influence of storytelling in shaping national identity, future production, and the cultivation of tomorrow’s imagination.”
She emphasizes the importance of allocating time, resources, and space to “dream, design, and build our (African) narrative,” which often remain ignored or dismissed as a laughing matter, rather than serious endeavor. Africans appear to be content with minimal rewards, while others capitalize on and gain significant benefits from their creativity.
Nigeria’s Paystack, which handles online and offline payments, has been acquired by the United States-based Stripes, which will now benefit from its future earnings. Additionally, Nigeria’s MainOne, a global digital infrastructure company, has been purchased by international investors.
Although Flutterwave is not fully owned by foreigners, its headquarters was relocated to San Francisco in the United States due to its deep ties with American markets. It is set to expand further on the New York Stock Exchange. Africa needs to establish a reliable patent system for its intellectual property.
Unfortunately, there is very little of a pan-African platform that guarantees ongoing profitability or even generational wealth for “Africa,” according to Owuor, who states, “It sits on the last major untapped narrative reserves, stories that could serve as collateral for loans, fund sovereign wealth, and draw investments as inevitable returns on investment.”
She envisions a Lagos-Johannesburg-Tunis-Nairobi narrative exchange platform, where, for example, the legacy of the incredibly wealthy Mali Emperor, Mansa Musa, is utilized so that Netflix, which she refers to as an intellectual property real estate company, is forced to compete for access to its story archives. She forecasts, “The global content market will reach $2.9tn soon.”
This huge opportunity is approximately three times the $1 trillion economy that President Bola Tinubu aims to achieve for Nigeria by 2030. She points out, “Currently, Africa’s narrative and content ecosystem is significantly underfunded and overlooked, and… still relatively unknown.”
However, to outsiders, it appears as a gleaming mineral, offering high potential for those who can recognize its value, and thus concludes that stories… are not merely cultural relics, but liquid assets that hold significant worth in the global market for attention.
She encouraged her audience to “imagine a Pan African content ecosystem: a modern, digital-focused platform, a creditor-oriented marketplace, and an intellectual property center, steadily generating wealth by turning creativity into income sources.” This strong stance, she emphasizes, “is not a sales pitch, it’s a sign of market demand.”
She observes, perhaps with a sense of sorrow, that “Africa’s stories, vibrant cinematic epics, engaging short-form material, and everything in between, are already present in global markets,” distant from the African creators and viewers who originated them.
She believes that Africans should envision and create their own future. Africa, she states, needs to evolve from merely serving as the muse, which only inspires, to becoming the mogul that turns creativity into profitable ventures that consistently generate naira and kobo.
The Nigerian Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, Ms Hannatu Musawa, needs to understand that her role goes beyond reciting poetry and attending photo sessions at Ojude Oba in Ijebu Ode, located in Ogun State. She should study Owuor’s theory on transforming creative concepts into financial gain.
She needs to inquire with the Ojude Oba Committee about the upcoming challenges, and then gather entrepreneurs, investors, and managers of creative assets to develop practical strategies for leveraging the festival for Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, and Nigeria.
Owuor, nevertheless, admits that what is lacking in Africa is “the infrastructure to extract, process, handle, and reinvest.” Nigerians should leverage Owuor’s arguments to challenge the existing global economic model that positions Africa as a exporter of raw materials and importer of finished products.
She urges Africa’s “architects of capitals, builders of systems, and guardians of futures…” to commit time and effort toward imagining and collaboratively developing a structured, viable narrative economy throughout the (African) continent.
She adds: “We require… the unrestricted movement of goods, ideas, technologies, and cultural resources, not just as a question of identity, but also of prosperity and framework. An inclusive, imaginative economy can connect our disjointed (African) regions into a continental investment area, connecting needs, enhancing trade, and increasing (Africa’s) influence.”
Nollywood films and Afrobeats should no longer spread across Africa in an unorganized way. Instead, they should be directed with purpose to increase earnings for the artists and boost tax income for the governments.
Owuor urges Africans to establish what she refers to as a Pan African Vault of Creative Rights, where Africa’s financial gains come from long-term royalties, and artists maintain ownership in the creative works born from their talent.
To prevent creating content that others might take advantage of, Owuor addressed her audience: “Develop a structured, investment-friendly narrative economy throughout the continent, a pan-African-owned intellectual property vault, (an African) royalty exchange… serving as a long-term safeguard against creative, policy, and cultural reliance,” potentially to counter the world’s exploiters.
She feels sorry that Africa’s rights, royalties, and income sources consistently move beyond the continent, and argues that with the proper “vision, innovative financial tools, legally binding structures, and international cooperation, Africa’s creative environment could be considered… as independent assets.”
She also claims that “Africa’s stories are not only suitable for export, but they are also adaptable, manageable, and profitable.” She states that Disney, the imaginative realm designed to entertain children, “is simply a repository of stories with a financial statement.”
Her statement links the artist and his work to economic growth; art and the naira must be connected, as she clearly hopes Nigeria will take the lead in this effort.
X:@lekansote1, lekansote.com
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