Del-York Group Partners with Tribeca Festival to Present the African Film Spotlight, Supported by Afreximbank, Bank of Industry, and UN Women

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Del-York Group Partners with Tribeca Festival to Present the African Film Spotlight, Supported by Afreximbank, Bank of Industry, and UN Women

New York, NY – June 2025.

Del-York Group proudly announces its partnership with the world-renowned Tribeca Festival to unveil the African Film Spotlight a premier platform that champions Africa’s cinematic storytelling, cultural ingenuity, and creative potential on the global stage. This groundbreaking initiative is supported by Afreximbank, through its creative arm CANEX Creations Inc., and co-sponsored by Bank of Industry (Nigeria) and UN Women.

Staged during the 2025 Tribeca Festival in New York City, the African Film Spotlight was themed “Cross-Continental Collaboration & The Power of Partnership.” The event convened Africa’s most dynamic filmmakers, producers, financiers, and cultural policymakers for robust engagements designed to accelerate investment, stimulate co-productions, and position African cinema as a commercially viable and globally relevant force.

Leading the initiative on behalf of Del-York was Stephanie Linus, celebrated actress, director, and cultural ambassador, who emphasized the platform’s mission to unlock bold new narratives and deepen international creative ties.

“The African Film Spotlight is a catalyst to reshape Africa’s global creative footprint and fuel enduring, cross-border partnerships,” said Linus.

Adding to the impact of this year’s Tribeca activation was the presence of CANEX Creations Inc., the newly established Afreximbank subsidiary dedicated to investing in Africa’s creative and cultural industries. At the heart of the festival, CANEX hosted a high-level Deal Room, where dozens of African filmmakers pitched their projects for funding. This landmark engagement reflects Afreximbank’s firm commitment to pipeline financing for African films and content-driven IPs with global potential.

Del-York Group, recognized as a vanguard in Africa’s creative renaissance, is also notably involved in the Kebulania Lagos State Film City Project a transformative infrastructure and talent development initiative in Epe, Lagos, spearheaded in partnership with the Lagos State Government. This strategic alignment between local development and international exhibition exemplifies Del-York’s holistic approach to ecosystem building spanning production infrastructure, policy alignment, global promotion, and capital mobilization.

This historic collaboration at Tribeca not only amplifies African storytelling but also cements the growing recognition of Africa’s creative economy as a frontier for investment, innovation, and soft power diplomacy.

For media inquiries, interviews, or partnership opportunities, please contact:

Media Relations
Del-York Group
press@delyork.com

The Nigerian Creative Economy: Beyond Nollywood and the Entertainment Industry

The Nigerian Creative Economy: Beyond Nollywood and the Entertainment Industry

Overview

Nigeria - Media and Entertainment

According to PwC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook for 2022-2026, Nigeria’s media and entertainment industry is one of the fastest growing creative industries in the world. It has the potential to become one of the country’s exports, with projected annual consumer growth rate of 8.8% (CAGR). PwC indicates that in 2021, Nigeria’s film industry contributed 2.3% ($660 million (239 billion naira)) to GDP. They project that the industry will increase its export revenue earnings to over $1 billion. The motion picture and music combined contributed about $1.8 billion (730 billion naira) to the country’s GDP in 2020.

The country’s television and video market grew 7.49% to $806 million in 2020, up from $732 million in 2018. The industry is projected to earn about $900 million in 2023. The market is driven by subscription revenue, which accounted for 72.26% of total TV/video sector revenue in 2018. TV advertising accounts for 21.31% of total revenue, while physical home videos account for 5.33%. Subscription-based movie streaming are very popular in Nigeria, attracting players like Netflix, Iroko TV, and Startimes. Although Netflix subscription has long been available in Nigeria, they made their official debut in Nigeria in February 2020, joining several major distributors of filmed content in Nigeria. In August 2022, Amazon Prime Video announced the launch of the localized version of its streaming service in Nigeria. According to an IMF report, the industry is projected to generate an estimated revenue of $10.8 billion by 2023 and account for 1.4% of GDP. The report indicates that in 2020, Nigeria overtook South Africa in pay TV subscription as the country currently has over 6.9 million pay TV households as of 2021.  It is projected to grow to upwards of 7.4 million by 2023. A new study by Research and Markets, shows that Nigeria will contribute about 10 million, or 21.2%, of Africa’s pay television subscribers by 2025.

The music sector of Nigeria’s entertainment industry also recorded significant growth over the years. Stakeholders include artists, musicians, producers, promoters, managers, distributors, and marketers. As of 2021, the music industry employed about a million people and generated over $8 billion for the economy. In the past six years, the growing numbers of new production studios and artists enabled a more vibrant and self-sustaining industry, producing globally recognized music. In this environment, Nigerian musicians have developed a vast spectrum of music genres. The industry has won prestigious awards with artists like Wizkid and Burnaboy claiming Grammy awards, attracting more and more investments..

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/nigeria-media-and-entertainment

Which creative industries drive the creative economy of every country?

The industries are the following:

 Advertising, architecture, arts and crafts, design, fashion, film, video, photography, music, performing arts, publishing, research and development, software, computer games, electronic publishing and TV/radio.

As Dr. Reuben Abati said on The Morming Show of Arise TV on Thursday, November 23, 2023;

We cannot talk about growing the creative industry without a Cultural Policy.

Do we have a Cultural Policy?

Do we even have a Film Policy for Ñollywood and the Nigerian film industry?

Ñollywood is actually a dysfunctional film industry without a film market.

Without an insurance policy.

Without a single film commission.

Let me just go straight to my critical basics of the economics of the creative industry in Nigeria with an important query. And that's all. There is no need for a thesis on the economic crisis of Ñollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

Currently, the Nigerian film industry is a big canoe with holes and different sorts of characters with different agendas; including the real creative professionals, jobbers and of course the opportunists. 

They will make a big 

Kafkaesque and Soyinkasque drama.

Only the creatives with bankable assets and products can grow the creative economy. And not those who are expendable liabilities in the creative industry; that collected loans from the Bank of Industry of Nigeria and other banks and cannot account for the loans due to misappropriations and diversions of the millions of naira they collected. 

What happened to the N3 Billion Grant of the Project ACT Nollywood launched by the administration of former, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR?

Who were the benefitiaries?

Where are the assets and products of the beneficiaries?

Where are the 75 movies produced?

Where are the students trained in filmmaking?

Until there is a forensic report on the Project ACT Nollywood Grant, any establishment for an investment in the creative industry to grow the creative economy by the federal government lacks accountability.

Read the article on 

How The Project ACT Nollywood Grant Was Embezzled - by 

*Eyengho, is President, Association of Nollywood Producers, ANCOP, and Vice President, International Federation of Film Producers Associations, FIAPF.

http://www.metroparrot.net/2015/08/how-n3-billion-project-act-nollywood.html

The federal government should have a forensic report on the previous government investments in the creative industry before the establishment of a new initiative for the acceleration of creative economy.

- Ekenyerengozi MichaeI Chima,

Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series.

Founder/President,

ZENITH International Film Festival,

https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2023/11/zenith-international-film-festivals.html

Film Financing is Not the Priority for the Nigerian Film Industry

The Nigerian film industry has no film market. Nigeria does not buy or sell films. We went to Cannes and Toronto and returned without selling or buying any film. And we lie that Nollywood employs 1 million people. Where?