Nigeria to Earn from Culture as WIPO Opens Abuja Office

Nigeria’s Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Barr Hannatu Musa Musawa, has said the country must stop creating global culture without earning from it.

Musawa disclosed on Friday that the federal government launched a National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy (NIPPS) and welcomed the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)’s first sub-Saharan Africa office in Abuja this week.

Speaking at UN House Abuja, she announced Nigeria’s challenge was not talent but how value was retained after work left creators’ hands. 

"Nigeria does not have a talent problem. Afrobeats is global. Nollywood is in 80 countries. Our designers are on international runways. The problem has always been what happens after the work leaves your hands," she said.

She framed intellectual property as a financial asset rather than bureaucracy.

"Intellectual property is not paperwork. It is income. A copyright is how a musician earns every time her song is played. A trademark is a brand no one can take from you. A patent is an asset you can take to a bank," the Minister said.

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Musawa pointed to the economic scale at stake, saying global trade in intellectual property reached USD 1.2 trillion in 2025, while Nigeria’s creative industries already generate an estimated N2.5 trillion annually without what she called a fully functioning IP system. 

"Those figures are the floor, not the ceiling," she added.

Musawa said the creative economy is now central to the administration’s economic agenda and that WIPO’s presence would strengthen registration, enforcement and commercialisation of rights.

"We are done with being a country that creates the world’s culture and does not earn from it. That chapter is closing. This one is ours," she said.

The remarks come as Afrobeats, Nollywood and Nigerian fashion continue to expand internationally, with policymakers now reportedly focused on ensuring musicians, filmmakers and designers retain ownership and revenue from their work.