Africa’s Creative Economy Is Growing, but Measuring It Remains a Challenge

Africa’s creative economy is increasingly visible in music, film, fashion, publishing, gaming, design and digital content. Measuring its actual economic contribution remains considerably harder.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics is developing a new global statistical framework for cultural and creative industries, an effort that could help African governments better measure employment, economic output and participation across a sector that often sits partly outside conventional economic statistics.

In an interview published by UNESCO on 18 August, Dr Angela Martins, a former Acting Director for Social Development, Culture and Sport at the African Union Commission, argued that stronger cultural statistics are essential if African countries are to understand how creative industries contribute to inclusive development and youth employment.

Visibility has grown faster than measurement

African creative industries have become more internationally visible over the past decade. Afrobeats and Amapiano have expanded global audiences for African music. African film and television are reaching international streaming platforms. Fashion, visual art and publishing have built larger cross-border markets and diaspora audiences.

But headline visibility does not automatically produce reliable economic data. Creative work is often spread across formal companies, freelancers, informal businesses, self-employed workers and digital platforms. That makes standard business surveys and labour statistics less capable of capturing the full scale of activity.

The problem becomes more significant when governments try to design policy. Without comparable information on jobs, firm revenues, exports, intellectual property, digital activity and participation, it is difficult to know which parts of the sector are growing, which constraints are most important or where public investment can have the greatest effect.

Data affects financing as well as policy

Better measurement is not only a government issue. Investors and lenders also rely on data to assess markets. A sector that appears economically opaque can struggle to attract financing even when individual businesses demonstrate strong demand.

Creative businesses often hold value in intellectual property, audience relationships, catalogues, brands and future royalties rather than traditional physical assets. Weak sector-level statistics can make those business models harder for conventional finance to evaluate.

This is particularly relevant as African institutions increasingly describe the creative economy as a potential source of employment for the continent’s young population. Policymakers need to distinguish between cultural visibility and durable economic opportunity, including whether jobs are stable, fairly paid and linked to businesses that can scale.

A common framework could improve comparisons

UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics says internationally comparable cultural statistics are becoming more important as countries strengthen evidence-based policymaking. Its advisory work is intended to help shape a global framework capable of capturing cultural and creative industries more consistently across countries.

For Africa, comparability matters because creative markets increasingly cross borders. Music distribution, streaming, film production, festivals, fashion supply chains and digital content operate across national and regional markets. A common framework would make it easier to compare performance and identify where infrastructure, regulation or financing is holding activity back.

It could also provide a stronger evidence base for continental initiatives seeking to position culture as part of economic development rather than as a sector supported only through grants and cultural policy.

The next challenge is turning cultural influence into measurable value

Africa already has abundant evidence of cultural influence. The harder task is building the statistical systems that show how that influence translates into firms, employment, exports, intellectual property and income.

That distinction matters for the future of the creative economy. Markets that cannot be measured clearly are harder to finance, harder to regulate intelligently and harder to integrate into national development strategies.

The UNESCO initiative therefore addresses an unglamorous but important part of Africa’s creative-economy story: before governments and investors can scale what is working, they need better evidence of what is actually there.

Sources

• UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 18 August 2026
• UNESCO culture programme
• African Union cultural development resources