To consolidate the growth and acceleration of Africa’s creative economy, media entrepreneur and co-founder of RED | For Africa, Adebola Williams has launched the Media Innovation Talent Technology and Art (MITTA) Centre. The Centre will invest in local talent, connect creatives to partners and potential funders, and build capacity and infrastructural support to further democratize opportunities for young people.
Its aim is to catalyze the creative economies of the African continent by replicating the successes it achieves in the Nigerian creator economy by leveraging the talent, experience, and networks of leading personalities who belong to the MITTA Centre Expert Council. These team of established practitioners led by founder, Adebola Williams will embark on scoping missions, as invited by different governments, to design an effective roadmap to accelerate the African creative economy for global earnings.
“At the MITTA Centre, the vision is to further democratize the creative economy in countries that are playing lead, and catalyze those who are just finding their path particularly using the Nigerian model,” said Adebola Williams.
“Beyond earnings, creatives of any nation are tasked with the responsibility of telling the stories that determine how the world engages with it, build trust, transacts business, attracts Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) or even partner its citizens. It is therefore an imperative beyond job creation for a continent set to be the most populated, to grow this sector that can accelerate national prosperity for nations.”
The MITTA Centre will also deploy resources towards developing synergy between the creative economy, technology, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), utilising the evolving global technological advancement to further democratize opportunities and leapfrog the economy.
According to Adebola Williams: “Talent is the currency of this generation, and if we must develop a continent with the largest population of young people, we must prepare for that with a sector that has the capacity to absorb with the lowest barrier of entry — the creative economy.
“The top 10 Afrobeats songs of 2023 songs are from Nigeria. Nollywood dominates Amazon and Netflix. And from Disney to Universal, Nigerian film producers are signing global deals and partnerships. If Afrobeats was streamed 13 billion times on Spotify alone in 2022, and the entire entertainment industry in Africa is $58 million whilst the global entertainment industry is worth $2 trillion, there’s a strong case that more work needs to be done to ensure the industry is not bleeding, and that it has full capacity to take what it deserves.”
Highlighting the structure of the Centre, Adebola further stated that “the leadership of the MITTA Centre cuts across media practitioners, experts, and other key stakeholders who will drive the needed conversations between the public and private sectors. Through the appointment of these experts, the MITTA Centre will actively seek the growth and development of one of Africa’s most promising sectors – the creative economy.”
Supported by the United Nations and through the invitation of the Rwandan Government, Adebola Williams recently led the first MITTA Centre Expert Council Expedition which included Nollywood icons such as Richard Mofe-Damijo and Osas Ighodaro; Flytime Chief Executive Officer, Cecil Hammond; Country Manager of Paramount Pictures, Bada Akintunde-Johnson; and Director of FilmHouse Group, Moses Babatope, on a scoping mission in Rwanda. The goal is to ignite a transformative journey for the creative economy, fostering sustainable impact, and advancing the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Follow the MITTA Centre journey via @mittacentre on Instagram and Twitter.
