By Peace Udugba
Africa’s creative economy has become one of the continent’s most influential growth sectors, shaping global conversations across fashion, music, film, art, and design. Yet despite this influence, Africa still captures only a small fraction of the economic value tied to its creativity.
The numbers tell the story clearly. Africa’s fashion industry generated $4.2 billion in exports in 2022, while the continent’s broader creative economy—spanning fashion, music, crafts, film, and design—accounted for just 1.5 percent of global creative output. In 2023, approximately five million Africans were working within creative industries, with that number expected to rise significantly over the next decade.
According to projections by Boston Consulting Group, Africa’s creative economy could generate between $150 billion and $160 billion annually by 2030, if supported by the right structural investment.
The gap between where Africa’s creative economy stands today and where it could be is increasingly clear. It is not a talent problem. It is not a quality problem. It is an infrastructure problem.
That is the gap ÀLKÉ says it intends to address.
Founded by Lulu Shabell, ÀLKÉ is a pan-African cultural institution built around four pillars: Art, Legacy, Knowledge, and Enterprise. Rather than functioning as a seasonal showcase, the platform is designed as a permanent framework to preserve, commercialise, and grow Africa’s creative industries over the long term.
For Shabell, the need for a different model became clearer after years working across African and international creative markets.
“I kept returning to the same question,” she said. “Why are African creatives constantly trying to enter structures built by others instead of building institutions of our own?”
That question now sits at the centre of ÀLKÉ’s vision. The institution argues that while African culture continues to shape global industries, ownership and long-term economic value often remain concentrated elsewhere. In fashion and luxury especially, African aesthetics, textiles, and cultural references continue to influence global design—often without sustained returns flowing back to the communities connected to those traditions.
ÀLKÉ’s model is built around three core structures.
The first is the annual ÀLKÉ Ball, described as a convening platform for creatives, investors, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. The inaugural edition will take place in Cape Town, with future editions expected to rotate across Lagos, Nairobi, Dakar, Accra, Addis Ababa, and Cairo. This rotating format is intended to position the initiative at a continental scale rather than anchor it to a single city or founder.
The second pillar is the ÀLKÉ
Endowment, a permanent funding structure focused on education, research, manufacturing support, archives, and enterprise development within the creative sector. The institution says the endowment is designed to provide durable support beyond the short-term grant cycles that have long shaped funding for African creative industries.
The third pillar is a venture studio framework aimed at connecting African creatives and cultural enterprises with investors, policymakers, and commercial partners capable of scaling their work into sustainable businesses.
Education remains one of the sector’s biggest gaps.
Research across parts of the continent shows that many African fashion and design institutions still rely heavily on Western frameworks, often positioning New York, London, and Paris as primary reference points for innovation. At the same time, African creative capitals such as Lagos, Dakar, Nairobi, and Johannesburg continue to shape global culture in real time.
ÀLKÉ says part of its long-term strategy will involve building archives, educational frameworks, and institutional partnerships that document African design knowledge while strengthening pathways into international markets.
For business and policy stakeholders, the larger question is economic. Africa’s cultural influence continues to grow globally, while its youth population, digital economy, and creative sectors expand rapidly. The challenge is whether the continent can build institutions capable of converting that cultural relevance into long-term value.
ÀLKÉ’s answer is that the opportunity already exists. The task now is building the structures to sustain it.
