Creative Industry

CEDF Opens Phase 2 Loan Applications for Nigerian Creatives & Entrepreneurs

Published

1 year ago

August 24, 2025

Joel Ajayi

The Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism, and the Creative Economy has officially launched Phase 2 of the Creative Economy Development Fund (CEDF).
This is a bold national initiative designed to accelerate Nigeria’s creative and cultural industries by providing access to finance, skills, and market opportunities.

Building on the success of Phase 1, which saw thousands of Nigerian creatives and entrepreneurs apply for support, Phase 2 expands both the scope and scale of the Fund. This phase is specifically targeted at businesses and enterprises seeking to unlock growth, scale innovation, and create sustainable jobs in Nigeria’s creative economy.

The CEDF sits at the heart of Nigeria’s Renewed Hope Agenda, providing the financial backbone for transforming the country’s creative assets into engines of inclusive economic growth. Phase 2 introduces a streamlined application process through the official portal . The platform now features an intuitive and simplified new interface, ensuring that applicants can easily navigate funding opportunities, submit proposals, and track their application status without unnecessary hurdles. Beyond funding access, the portal provides real-time updates, resource materials, and a transparent process to strengthen trust and accountability.

This Phase 2 Call prioritizes proposals from businesses seeking funding of up to $100,000. The Fund is open across multiple creative sub-sectors, reflecting the diversity of Nigeria’s creative economy, including Film, Television, and Animation, Gaming, XR, and Interactive Media, Music and Entertainment, Literature and Publishing, Visual Arts and Crafts, Fashion and Design, Culinary Arts and Gastronomy, Tourism, Heritage, and Cultural Experiences, ensuring that no subsector is left behind in Nigeria’s creative renaissance.

Phase 2 is designed to fuel innovation, create jobs, strengthen SMEs and MSMEs, drive exports, and institutionalize growth through digital tracking and reporting tools. The Fund aims to support businesses that leverage creativity and technology to deliver new cultural products and services, expand the employment base of the creative economy, provide financial lifelines to entrepreneurs, position Nigerian creative content and cultural goods as competitive exports, and embed mechanisms for monitoring, accountability, and sustainability.

The launch of Phase 2 of the CEDF marks a significant milestone in Nigeria’s creative economy development, and the Ministry encourages all eligible businesses and enterprises to apply for funding and support.
Apply through the official portal www.cedf.gov.ng.

Share on Facebook

Creative Industry

FG Backs MyCityApp Launch of 100-Day Tourism Calendar to Drive $100bn Economic Growth

Published

2 weeks ago

September 15, 2026

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The Federal Government has thrown its weight behind the launch of MyCityApp, a Nigerian city discovery and tourism platform designed to aggregate festivals, concerts, cultural events and lifestyle experiences into a single digital calendar.

The platform, which flags off the 100-Day Tourism Calendar, was unveiled on Monday at the Ember2Remember National Stakeholders’ Conference in Victoria Island, Lagos, with the initiative targeting Nigeria’s estimated $100 billion tourism and creative economy opportunity.

In a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by the Media and Publicity Adviser to the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, the ministry said the conference was aimed at mobilising public and private stakeholders to transform the September-to-December festive period into jobs, investment and economic growth.

Speaking at the unveiling, the Minister, Hannatu Musa Musawa, said millions of visitors travel across Nigeria every year to celebrate, reconnect and experience the country’s diverse culture, stressing that the festive season could be deliberately organised and monetised to strengthen tourism’s contribution to the economy.

“This initiative is about moving beyond the traditional concept of a festive season. It is about deliberately organising, packaging, promoting, and monetising one of the most economically active periods in our national calendar,” Musawa said.

She noted that every visitor generates economic activity across several sectors, including aviation, transportation, hospitality, restaurants, entertainment, retail, technology, artisans and local communities.

The Minister commended MyCityApp Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Ifeoma Chukwu, for her vision and commitment to the initiative.

She urged state governments, event organisers, tourism operators, hospitality businesses and other stakeholders to list their festivals, concerts, exhibitions, food experiences, cultural celebrations, fashion and sporting events on the national calendar.

Musawa said the platform would enable Nigerians, members of the diaspora and international visitors to discover tourism and entertainment experiences across the country from a single, credible source.

Earlier, Chukwu said Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage and creative sector provided enormous opportunities for tourism-driven economic growth.

She cited the contributions of tourism to the economies of countries such as Spain, France and the United States, arguing that Nigeria could equally build a $100 billion tourism economy.

Also present were Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Toke Benson-Awoyinka; Enugu State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Ugochi Madueke; NCAC Director-General, Obi Asika; National Gallery of Art Director-General, Ahmed Sodangi; ARCON Director-General, Dr Olalekan Fadolapo; and MTN Nigeria CEO, Dr Karl Toriola.

MyLagosApp and MyCityApp will serve as the digital engines of the calendar, distributing events through a 360-degree media ecosystem to audiences in Nigeria and the diaspora.

Stakeholders were encouraged to upload their events on MyCityApp to participate in the national tourism calendar urging them to upload events on http://www.MyCityApp.io.

Share on Facebook