In South Africa, a Trevor Noah-backed film project explores the unlikely alliance of the daughter of a water tycoon and a gangster from the townships to lead a rebellion.
In Sierra Leone, British rapper and film director Rapman is co-writing and directing a film about a young Sierra Leonean soldier thrust into power after a bloodless coup.
Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani and Khaled Alwaleed, his partner on the Cannes award-winning film, Goodbye Julia, are co-writing a drama that takes place in 1983 Sudan, as Sharia Law takes hold.
The projects are among the first nine selected by Next Narrative Africa, a $40 million mission-driven film fund launched two years ago by Akunna Cook, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs under US president Joe Biden. Next Narrative’s goal is to shift narratives about the continent by backing high quality films and television shows made by African artists, and filling funding gaps in project development and intellectual property protection.
In addition to the equity fund, Next Narrative Africa also is raising $10 million for grants for script development and project incubation.
“By pairing world-class storytelling with key financing and data validation, we are shaping the African narrative, positioning it for global investment, and sustaining thousands of jobs and economic development across Africa,” said Cook in announcing its inaugural slate of film projects.
In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, Cook said she wanted creatives to keep as much of their IP as possible. “Because we exist, they can tell the stories they want to tell authentically — not appeasing someone who’s spent a short time on the continent. That’s owning both the narrative and owning the intellectual property.”
Creative assets
Filmmaking is a cornerstone of the $2 trillion global creative industry, yet African stories have often been told from a third party perspective. Next Narrative Africa is one of several funds working to empower local artists and promote local ownership of creative works. The funds also see an opportunity to create jobs in the creative sector, particularly for the continent’s growing youth population.
Africa’s film sector employs some five million people, contributing around $5 billion to the continent’s GDP. In contrast, Hollywood supports just over two million jobs but pays more than $200 billion in wages.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization sees potential to create 20 million film jobs in Africa and $20 billion in revenues with the right distribution infrastructure, institutional financing and policy support to prevent losses from piracy.
Until recently, Africa’s private sector investors have shied away from the creative economy, leaving it to development finance institutions to fund such work. France’s Fonds Sud Cinema, for example, has invested more than €40,000,000 ($46 million) over 20 years, supporting films from 260 directors from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
That’s changing, as the continent’s investors catch up with its global cultural cache.
In Kenya, HEVA Fund is pioneering ways to finance artists and creative economy companies. The fund provides milestone-based debt financing, lending against the value of an artist’s intellectual property, or revenues generated from copyrights and royalties.
Nairobi-based HEVA, which backs African businesses in the creative economy, has raised funding mainly from the European Union, Mastercard Foundation, Germany’s GIZ, and France’s AFD. But, which had partnered with Next Narrative Africa before the pair decided to go their separate ways last year, has also attracted the attention of Netflix. The streaming giant enlisted Heva to run its Creative Equity Scholarship Fund in East Africa.
“We know that creators are actually driving businesses,” Heva’s Wakiuru Njuguna told ImpactAlpha last year. “They are driving how we spend, how we consume. Everything is driven right now around the creator economy.”
One big proof point for Africa’s creative economy came in 2024 when the US-based private equity firm TPG exited from Lagos-based music label Mavin Records, which was sold to Universal Music Group. TPG’s Growth fund and Washington-based Kupanda Capital, an early stage investor in African businesses, had acquired a multimillion-dollar stake in Mavin, known for its roster of Afrobeat artists, via their joint venture, Kupanda Holdings, in 2019. (Kupanda Capital remains a minority investor in the label).
New models
To boost their homegrown creatives, African leaders are borrowing successful models used by other countries. South Korea has been wildly successful in producing globally recognized films; local media companies and state support have played a role in building South Korea’s $43 billion powerhouse industry.
The South Korean government in 2024 launched a 600 billion Korean won ($403 million) “K-content” fund in 2024 to help Korean producers adapt popular Korean intellectual property across multiple formats, rather than selling them to foreign platforms. Local media companies SLL JoongAng and CJ ENM and state-owned lenders like Industrial Bank of Korea and the Korea Development Bank were also involved.
Domestic institutions in Africa are borrowing a page from the K-content playbook. The African Export-Import Bank launched a $1 billion fund last year to promote the production and global distribution of high-quality African films and television shows. The fund is part of the bank’s Creative Africa Nexus, or CANEX, program, which aims to create jobs by providing direct and indirect credit, equity, guarantees, project and asset-based finance to creatives. The program also provides training, trade and export promotion.
The fund, said Afreximbank’s Kanayo Awani, “will help unlock the full potential of Africa’s creative economy by giving African storytellers the platform, resources, and visibility they deserve.”
The Export-Import bank had previously launched a Film Development Financing Facility in 2020, to provide debt for the production and distribution of films produced by Africa-based enterprises, or those partially owned by Africans. The film facility offers guarantees of up to 50% for local or foreign institutions financing the production of African content, backing for bids and tenders for film production, project finance to set up theatres, studios and cinemas, lines of credit to financial institutions for on-lending to film projects as well as direct advances.
The facility invested $3.8 million in Johannesburg-based AAA Entertainment to facilitate the production of nearly a dozen projects in collaboration with other filmmakers in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and South Africa.
In Japan, Sony Ventures Corporation launched the Sony Innovation Fund in 2016, followed by a $10 million Africa-focused iteration in 2023, to support startups within the entertainment industry. The African fund’s inaugural investment was South Africa-based game publisher and digital commerce platform Carry1st.
Last year, the Sony Africa fund co-invested with the International Finance Corp. in Nigeria-based Filmmakers Mart, an all-in-one platform that helps production houses with staffing, equipment, location scouting and other services within the production chain. The financing supported expansion outside of its existing markets like Kenya, Ghana, Morocco and South Africa, and underwrote new offerings like subscription models, post-production tools and training programs.
IFC had separately made its first investment in a creative economy startup, providing $3.4 million for Côte d’Ivoire-based ANKA. The startup’s online platform allows African artists producing jewellery, clothing and other goods and services to sell, ship and process their payments.
High concept
Next Narrative Africa’s first cohort of creative projects were selected from more than 2,000 submissions from 80 countries. The fund will finance up to 20% of the budget for “high concept” films and media with global appeal. At least half of the production must be based in Africa.
The fund has partnered with Parrot Analytics to measure potential demand for media projects and help de-risk institutional capital. Cook says the fund aims to meet demand from the vast African diaspora.
“This is the time to expand the thinking about what the global entertainment industry is going to look like and who the players are going to be.,” Cook told The Hollywood Reporter.
“We intend to shape how Africa and how people of African descent are going to play in the industry and reshape it for the better.”
