Johannesburg, South Africa, Mar 6: As the world marks International Women’s Day, a new insight piece from APO Group highlights a powerful shift underway in Africa’s creative industries—women are not just participating in the creative economy; they are increasingly claiming ownership of the systems, intellectual property, and distribution channels that define it.
Authored by Libby Allen, the opinion piece titled “In Africa’s Creative Economies, Women Are Claiming Ownership” examines how women entrepreneurs and creators across sectors are redefining value creation by controlling the critical points where cultural and economic power intersect.
Across fashion, gaming, and media, African women are building businesses rooted in intellectual property, innovation, and infrastructure ownership. In Senegal, entrepreneur Diarra Bousso has built fashion and lifestyle brand DIARRABLU using proprietary mathematical algorithms that generate designs and enable production only after customer demand is confirmed. This demand-driven approach significantly reduces waste while supporting local artisans and keeping creative ownership within the community.
Meanwhile in South Africa, the independent game studio Nyamakop has released the narrative-driven adventure game Relooted. Led creatively by narrative director Mohale Mashigo, the game explores the recovery of African artefacts from global museums, grounding storytelling in real historical context and cultural ownership.
In Nigeria, media entrepreneur Mo Abudu continues to reshape African storytelling through EbonyLife Media and its new membership-based streaming platform EbonyLife ON Plus. The platform aims to retain the economic value of African content within the continent by controlling distribution and audience access.
The report also highlights growing concerns around the rapid rise of generative AI. With many AI models trained on vast amounts of creative material without compensation, African creators—particularly women—face increasing exposure as their work feeds systems they do not own.
According to the analysis, the future of Africa’s creative industries will depend on who controls the key elements of the value chain—from intellectual property and technology infrastructure to storytelling and communication channels.
As conversations around gender equality intensify during International Women’s Day, the report argues that meaningful progress will be measured not by symbolic recognition but by whether women creators gain greater control over their work, distribution, and narratives in the years ahead.
