African governments may be overlooking one of the most commercially powerful opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): the continent’s film and audiovisual industry.
While trade ministers often focus on tariffs, rules of origin and the movement of manufactured goods, Africa’s growing film industry could become one of the most valuable exports under the continental free trade framework.
The opportunity lies in AfCFTA’s broader architecture, particularly its protocols on trade in services, investment and intellectual property. Together, they provide a framework that could make cross-border film production, investment and distribution easier across Africa.
For filmmakers, producing a movie across several African countries can involve complex questions around visas, professional qualifications, investment protection, intellectual property and revenue repatriation. AfCFTA has the potential to address several of these barriers by creating common rules for services and investment across participating countries.
The Protocol on Trade in Services covers audiovisual services and provides a framework for greater movement and recognition of professionals. In practice, this could make it easier for directors, cinematographers, actors, producers and other creative professionals from different African countries to collaborate on productions without facing unnecessary regulatory barriers.
Investment protection is equally important. The AfCFTA investment framework provides protections around investments, intellectual property and the movement of capital. For an industry that depends heavily on financing and valuable creative assets, greater certainty could encourage both African and international investors to put more money into film production. Then there is the continent’s long-standing piracy problem.
Copyright infringement continues to drain significant value from Africa’s creative economy, depriving filmmakers, producers and distributors of revenue. Stronger intellectual property protection and enforcement across African markets could help close that leak and ensure that more of the money generated by African stories remains within the continent.
That is why African governments should see film as more than a cultural product. It is also a trade, investment and economic development opportunity. Africa faces a significant financing challenge. The continent requires substantial investment to meet its development goals, yet African economies continue to face high borrowing costs and perceptions of risk in international financial markets. Culture can play a role in changing that perception.
Countries such as South Korea have demonstrated how sustained investment in cultural exports can strengthen national brands and generate wider economic benefits. The global success of Korean music, film and television has increased international familiarity with the country while creating new opportunities for tourism, technology, consumer products and other exports.
Africa has a comparable opportunity, and perhaps an even bigger advantage: its global diaspora.
The African Union recognizes the diaspora as Africa’s Sixth Region, but its potential as a strategic partner for the continent’s creative economy remains largely untapped. African filmmakers and creatives already have significant audiences across North America, Europe and other global markets.
The commercial potential of Black-led cinema also points to a major opportunity. Research has highlighted the financial losses created by underinvestment in Black-led productions in the United States, suggesting that talented creators and commercially viable stories remain undervalued.
An AfCFTA-driven partnership between African investors and the diaspora could change that equation. Continental capital, diaspora creative leadership, shared intellectual property and global distribution could create a film ecosystem in which African stories are financed, produced and owned with the global market in mind, and some of the infrastructure for this is already emerging.
Afreximbank’s Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) program has committed significant funding to Africa’s creative industries and the diaspora, while its Pan-African Film Fund is designed to channel further investment into film production. The challenge now is for African governments to turn the legal framework into a functioning commercial ecosystem.
Member states need to implement relevant AFCFTA protocols, strengthen national film commissions and develop practical co-production agreements that encourage local hiring, skills development and shared ownership of intellectual property.
This is particularly important because Africa’s creative industries have historically depended heavily on foreign financing, platforms and distribution networks. Recent pullbacks by major global streaming companies from some African original-content investments have demonstrated the vulnerability of an industry that relies too heavily on external capital and validation. The answer is not for Africa to withdraw from global markets. It is to enter those markets with greater ownership.
A continental film industry financed by African and diaspora capital, protected by African trade and intellectual property frameworks, produced through cross-border collaboration and distributed globally could become a major export industry. More importantly, African film can do something that conventional exports cannot: influence how the world sees the continent.
Stories shape perceptions. Perceptions influence tourism, investment, consumer behavior and international relationships. A stronger African film industry therefore has implications far beyond entertainment.
AfCFTA was created to build a single African market. That market should not only move goods and services; it should also move African stories.
The single market for African films is not a distant possibility. With the right investment, regulation and political commitment, it could be one of the continent’s most scalable creative exports.
And this time, Africa has an opportunity not just to export its stories, but to own them.
