The Federal Government has set a target of creating two million jobs in Nigeria’s creative industry by 2030 as part of efforts to turn the country’s cultural assets and creative talent into commercially viable enterprises.
The Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, disclosed this on Friday at the closing ceremony of the 2026 Kano Creative Summit organised by the National Theatre.
The two-day summit, themed “Beyond Lagos: Unlocking Northern Nigeria’s Creative Economy,” focused on strengthening the creative economy in Northern Nigeria and equipping practitioners with skills to build sustainable businesses.
Musawa urged creative practitioners in the region to take ownership of their works, strengthen their business structures and make greater use of intellectual property to generate sustainable income.
She said Kano had a long history of creative enterprise, citing its dyeing pits, leatherwork, weaving, embroidery, blacksmithing, traditional performances and Kannywood film industry as cultural assets with significant economic potential.
“Kano had a creative economy long before anyone gave the name creative economy to the industry,” she said.
The minister said Kannywood had built a substantial international audience among Hausa-speaking communities across West Africa and other parts of the world. She called for greater recognition of its contribution to Nigeria’s global film industry alongside Nollywood.
Musawa also highlighted Kano’s contribution to literature and modern Nigerian art, noting that women in the city had written, printed and sold novels in local markets as far back as 1958, while artists associated with the Zaria Art Society contributed to the development of modern Nigerian art.
She said the appointment of Kannywood actor and filmmaker Ali Nuhu to head the Nigerian Film Corporation reflected efforts to involve practitioners from different parts of the creative industry in institutional leadership.
However, Musawa identified weak commercial structures, inadequate ownership systems and limited market access as major challenges preventing creative practitioners from earning sufficient income from their work.
“Talent has never been a problem here,” she said, stressing that the priority was to create systems that would enable creative work to provide sustainable livelihoods, particularly for younger generations.
She said some traditional craft practitioners were abandoning their occupations because the businesses could no longer provide enough income to sustain their livelihoods.
“What is missing is rarely talent. It is ownership, business structure, and a way into the market and directly into the money,” she said.
Musawa said the Federal Government was addressing the challenges through its creative economy programmes, including an eight-point plan and Destination 2030, which targets the creation of two million jobs in the creative industry by 2030.
She added that taking the creative summit to Kano was part of efforts to broaden access to opportunities in the creative economy and reduce the concentration of such opportunities in Lagos and Abuja.
The minister urged young creatives in Kano and other parts of Northern Nigeria to build sustainable businesses around their skills and create opportunities that would enable future generations to earn a living from the region’s cultural and creative industries.
