Panel 6 The Cultural Forum x Africalia: Financing of ICCs

Every second Saturday of the month, from March to September 2025, from 10:00 to 11:15 GMT, Africalia and Le Forum Culturel invite three actors from the cultural sector to explore current themes related to the development of CCIs. The sixth session is entitled “Investing in culture: how to ensure sustainable growth of CCIs?” and will be held in French.

The panel will be broadcast online on Africalia's Facebook page and available to watch on Facebook and YouTube in replay. The audience will be able to ask the experts questions in real time.

More info on Africalia's collaboration with Le Forum Culturel: here.

The topic

Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are an important pillar of sustainable economic development. To realize their full potential, they require adequate financial resources, skills, and infrastructure. This panel brings together experts and entrepreneurs from the African cultural sector to explore the opportunities and challenges related to financing. Drawing on their perspectives and experiences, they will share recommendations for ensuring sustainable financing in CCIs.

The panelists

Luc Mayitoukou (Senegal, DRC) is director of Zhu Culture and a renowned expert in CCIs in Africa. As manager and agent of renowned artists such as Saintrick, Aïda Samb and Fanie Fayar, he has extensive knowledge of the challenges and opportunities in the performing arts sector and cultural entrepreneurship on the African continent. He has several years of experience in implementing cultural projects and programs and in organizing events and festivals (Festival sur le Niger-Mali, Somahoro Festival in Madagascar, Yaakar Festival) and has also contributed to numerous key studies for the sector.

Yarri Kamara (Sierra Leone and Uganda) is an independent cultural policy researcher, writer, and translator. She provides research and policy advice, particularly on cultural sector development, and has previously worked with policymakers in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, as well as with institutions spanning the African region such as Africalia and the Creative Economy Practice at CCHub. A member of the UNESCO 2005 Convention Expert Facility, she authored the chapter "Culture and Sustainable Development" in the 2022 UNESCO report Re|Shaping Policies for Creativity, and co-authored UNESCO's flagship 2023 report on the fashion sector in Africa.

Founder of the brand FUNKE Fashion House (2020), Pamella N'ze Asseko (Benin) has been in the fashion industry for over ten years. After a successful career as a model, she now creates modern and sustainable clothing, using natural materials and promoting textiles made in Africa. Winner of several awards in Benin and elsewhere, such as the Award for Recognition of Merit in the Promotion of African Culture in 2021, she created the association in 2022 Funkè For Women, with which she sets up support in female leadership for young women in precarious situations.

The moderator

Leila Assas (Algeria) is a cultural journalist and social entrepreneur. She began her career in writing alongside her teaching career in the Saharan region of Timimoun. She collaborates with several national and international media such as Clam mag, Pan African Music, No'ocultures and Music In Africa Foundation. A beneficiary of the Orange Corners acceleration program, an initiative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in partnership with the Algerian Center for Social Entrepreneurship (ACSE), with her cultural engineering agency, she contributes to the promotion of tangible and intangible heritage of oases in Africa, Ziara Culture.

You can also rewatch the previous panels on gender representations, on art and resilience, on cultural mobility, on the new technologies and on North-South collaborations.