At the Milken Institute’s MEA Summit in Abu Dhabi, on a panel called “Creative Currency,” Boris Kodjoe stood alongside investors and executives making a case with a number behind it: Africa’s creative sector, music, film, and cultural exports, is projected to generate $200 billion in exports by 2030.
That number sits alongside another one from Boris’s Milken Institute history: Africa’s broader digital economy is projected to grow sixfold to $712 billion by 2050, with the creative sector alone capable of generating $20 billion a year and 20 million jobs, according to the research shared at his 2024 Global Conference panel.
Boris has made the same argument on three separate Milken Institute stages over three years: Nollywood, African music, and African-owned intellectual property are not emerging curiosities. They’re one of the fastest-growing investment opportunities in the world, and the returns depend on who controls the ownership, not just who consumes the content.
That’s the thread running through Boris’s entire Milken Institute history, from panelist to his current role as an official advisor to the Milken Africa Institute’s Africa Leadership Council: Africa’s creative economy is a market with real, countable upside, and FULL CIRCLE exists to make sure the diaspora isn’t just watching that number grow from the outside.
