AFRIMA, CANEX WKND Announce All-Star Line Up for Closing Concert

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

All is set for Creative Africa Nexus, CANEX WKND 2022, coming up from 25th to 27th November, 2022, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, as creatives, investors, industry leaders, creative industry businesses and government representatives, gather for a 3-day event with a strong focus on sharing skills and best practice from sectors across Africa’s creative and cultural industries. 

More than simply a business-to-business conference aimed at Africa and the diaspora’s booming creative sector, CANEX WKND is also a celebration of the creative talent that is taking the world by storm. The CANEX WKND is an initiative of the African Export-Import bank (AFREXIM), which has been a key player in developing the African creative industry.

According to the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Professor Benedict Oramah, “The CANEX WKND presents an opportunity to unlock the best of Africa.”

He also emphasized the value of CANEX WKND as a goldmine for Africa’s untapped talents, citing the depth of insight and opportunities to be shared at the free-to-attend event.

In addition to a high-profile fashion show, film screening and a range of live performances, CANEX WKND will close with a multi-artist concert that features some of the best talent from Africa and beyond.

In proud partnership with The All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, on Sunday 27 September, CANEX WKND is proud to present a concert featuring: Yemi Alade, Singer (Nigeria); Josey (Côte d’Ivoire); Nandy (Tanzania); Nadia Nakai (South Africa); Suspect 95 (Cote d’Ivoire); Didi B (Côte d’Ivoire); DJ Mohgreen (Morocco/ France) and Julian Marley (USA).

This line-up, especially curated by AFRIMA and CANEX WKND aims to showcase the diversity of talent from across the content, and with an important nod to the diaspora. Artists representing the various regions of Africa will bring their star talent and energy to the closing event of what promises to be an historic event for Africa’s creative sector.

CANEX and AFRIMA are aligned as platforms with the mission to promote, develop, and celebrate African talent. As Africa’s leading music awards event, AFRIMA has developed a strong reputation based on its key values of Fairness, Authenticity, Creativity, Excellence, Integrity and Transparency.

According to the Executive Producer/Presdient, AFRIMA, Mr Mike Dada, the partnership with CANEX WKND is a great move to consolidate efforts in developing Africa’s creative economy.

“Having seen that AFREXIM’s vision for CANEX WKND aligns significantly with our primary objectives of stimulating the creative economy, and developing it for the future generations, we are very excited to partner on this. We are happy about the fact that this will also help further promote African talents to an international audience, and give them more access to career-lifting opportunities. This is the beginning of more great collaborations for the growth of the African creative space.”

CANEX WKND is free to attend for all delegates who will be able to attend all the key event sessions including a range of intensive masterclasses commencing on Thursday 24 November, the main plenary sessions that will include experts such as; Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya (Nigeria); Didier Drogba, Retired Professional Footballer (Côte d’Ivoire) Alex Okosi, Managing Director of EMEA Emerging Markets at YouTube (Nigeria); Elvis Adidiema, Director, Sony Music for French-speaking Africa (Congo); Abdul-Karim Abdullah, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Culture Management Group (CMG) and Afrochella Festival (Ghana); Magali Ohouens, Modern Art Specialist & Exhibition Coordinator at Cécile Fakhoury Gallery (Côte d’Ivoire); Armando Cabral, Founder and Creative Director, Armando Cabral (Portugal); and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Author (Nigeria) amongst others.