Mapping Africa’s creative economy.

Client context

The client is an international cultural institution working on questions of cultural and creative-industry development. For this assignment, it needed a comparable evidence base to inform its understanding of African markets and sector opportunities.

Context

Africa’s creative economy is expanding quickly, but the evidence available to decision-makers remains uneven across countries, sectors and sources. The assignment required a continental perspective without flattening major differences between local markets.

What we did

PENCILS developed a pan-African assessment of creative-industry trends by combining international and national datasets, sector research, local intelligence and interviews.

The work covered 18 African markets and developed deeper perspectives on four major creative-industry value chains: film and audiovisual, fashion and design, publishing, and gaming and e-sports.

The analysis also examined financing, distribution, digital transformation, professionalisation, intellectual property, infrastructure and international investment.

Our approach

Evidence consolidation

We structured fragmented information from international organisations, public institutions, specialised studies and sector sources into a coherent evidence base.

Local intelligence

Local perspectives complemented the desk research, helping distinguish continent-wide patterns from market-specific realities.

Sector analysis

The work mapped value chains, organisations, distribution structures, investment dynamics and emerging business models.

Comparative perspective

A common analytical framework made comparison possible while keeping evidence gaps and methodological limits visible.

Outputs

Pan-African industry landscape

18-market evidence base

Four sector deep-dives

Trend and opportunity analysis

Country and sector reference material