Zimpapers Logo

Mbulelo Mpofu, [email protected]

 ON Thursday, Pan-African multilateral financial institution African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) expressed its mission to work on establishing a US$1-billion African Film Fund to be launched in 2024 to support the continent’s film industry.

 Kanayo Awani, executive vice president, Intra-African Trade Bank, at Afreximbank, announced this development in Cairo.

With the fund’s goal of supporting filmmakers around the continent, such a vision offers Zimbabwean filmmakers the opportunity to gain and advance their craft.

Addressing the opening of the 2023 CANEX Summit held as part of the third Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2023), Awani said that the fund would oversee film financing, co-finance with large studios, finance African filmmakers and finance producers and directors of film projects across the continent.

She noted that during CANEX WKND 2022, the bank had increased the financing it was making available to the creative sector from US$500 million to US$1 billion and that the bank currently had a pipeline of over US$600 million in film, music, visual arts, fashion, and sports deal.

“The very first film we financed recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. The bank has several in the pipeline from Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, which should be on streaming platforms in 2024,” said Awani.

Acknowledging that the film and audiovisual industries in Africa accounted for US$5 billion of the continent’s GDP and employed an estimated five million people, with the potential to create over 20 million jobs and generate US$20 billion in revenues annually, Awani noted that the sector faced several challenges, including limited access to financing and copyright infringement due to weak copyright laws, enforcement mechanisms and a lack of awareness.

The sector was also confronted with infrastructure and technology gaps, lack of capacity, shortage of skilled professionals, and limited market access and international exposure, as a result of which African creative and cultural products often struggle to gain exposure and access to international markets.

– @MbuleloMpofu

*Additional reportage from: www.Afreximbank.com