Building Africa’s youth through culture, not charity

Yet, despite its youthful energy and cultural capital, the continent still faces significant challenges: infrastructure gaps, skills shortages, and a development model that too often seeks external validation over internal alignment. The creative economy offers a different path—one where African imagination is not only celebrated but converted into skills, employment, and thriving industries.

This is exactly where organisations such as Arts Connect Africa (ACA) and Ckrowd are leading the way.

From talent to trade: Africa’s creative economy at a tipping point

Africa’s cultural and creative industries already generate more than $4.2 billion annually and employ over 8 million people, according to UNESCO. Projections suggest the sector could contribute more than 5% to Africa’s GDP by 2030. But potential alone won’t get us there. Real progress demands intentional collaboration, strategic training, and well-designed ecosystems.

Organisations like ACA and Ckrowd are reimagining how Africa nurtures, scales, and empowers its young creatives—not just as artists, but as architects of economic and cultural policy.

Systems before stardom: Rethinking creative skills development

It is time for stakeholders, institutions, and organisations across Africa to embrace a simple but powerful belief: skills must be homegrown, not imported. The continent doesn’t need to borrow models—it needs to build them. ACA’s pre-event training initiative for MASA 2026 is a case in point. From dance and theatre to music and storytelling, young creatives are being trained in production, pitch delivery, and intellectual property management—not just to perform, but to prosper.

ACA doesn’t wait for institutions to act. It transforms festivals into classrooms, residencies into skill hubs, and informal gatherings into policy-influencing platforms. Its approach centres peer-led training, mobility, entrepreneurship, and localised expertise—ensuring skill development is context-specific and continent-first.

Platforms with purpose: Where ACA builds the pipeline, Ckrowd powers the platform

While ACA nurtures talent at the grassroots, private-sector innovators like Ckrowd—a trailblazing music-tech company—provide the digital infrastructure to connect African creatives with global opportunities. By building an outsourcing ecosystem, Ckrowd links African music professionals with international contracts, projects, and employers—offering jobs at all levels, from entry to executive.

Ckrowd’s success lies in its understanding of both technology and tradition. It knows that creative empowerment doesn’t come from Western validation, but from African collaboration. Its partnership with ACA is a blueprint for the future—blending technical training with business acumen and cultural fluency to create a holistic, monetisable, and mobile creative economy.

Together, they are dismantling the barriers that have long kept talent and opportunity apart, redefining the rules of engagement in the global creative space.

Youth in power: Embedding creativity in governance and policy

True transformation requires more than tools—it requires inclusion. In today’s digital age, African youth must not only consume culture—they must co-create policy. This means embedding creative thinking into education systems, supporting cross-border internships, and funding cultural incubators in underserved regions.

It also means prioritising access to technology. According to the ITU, only 38% of Africans have reliable internet access. Without connectivity, the dream of a digital creative revolution remains out of reach for far too many. We must democratise access to software, digital training, and revenue platforms—so that Africa’s youth can not only survive, but scale.

The bigger picture: From skills to sovereignty

World Youth Skills Day must be more than a symbolic occasion. It should serve as a rallying cry to recognise creativity as capital—and African youth as investors, not in charity, but in sovereignty, storytelling, and sustainable growth. This is not just about jobs—it’s about journeys. It’s not about catching up with the world.

It’s about creating a new world on our own terms.

Africa’s future is cultural. It is youth-led. And it is unapologetically African.

This is why it is essential for policymakers, private-sector leaders, donors, and diaspora communities to turn dreams into industries. Because when young creatives are given not just microphones, but systems and infrastructure—they don’t just change their lives.

They change the continent.

Kayode Adebayo is the CEO of Ckrowd and board director of Arts Connect Africa (ACA). The views expressed in this article are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication.