From John Silas
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko, joined a distinguished panel of global industry leaders this past Saturday at Craft Addis 2026, delivering a powerful and practical blueprint for building globally competitive pan-African creative businesses.
Held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the session brought together cross-continental experts to interrogate the future of Africa’s creative economy, with a focus on scale, structure and sustainability.
Joining Babaeko on the panel were the Managing Partner, Laurendeau & Associates (Japan), Bernard Laurendeau; Co-founder and Managing Director, Africa Fintech Summit (USA), Zekarias Amsalu, while the session was moderated by Frances Quarcoopome of JamJar Company Ltd, Nairobi.
During the discussion, Babaeko, a leading pan-African advertising agency chief, outlined a clear-eyed perspective on what it will take to unlock Africa’s creative potential at scale, drawing from his experience building X3M Ideas across multiple markets.
His key talking points included infrastructure as the real gap. He noted that the difference between Africa’s creative output and global benchmarks is not talent but infrastructure across production, distribution, payments and intellectual property protection.
Among the others, he stressed that AfCFTA must move from policy to practice, noting that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has the potential to unlock seamless movement of talent, ideas and capital across borders, but execution is critical.
Furthermore, he noted Culture as Africa’s unfair advantage. According to him, Africa’s stories, traditions and creative expressions are not just assets but strategic differentiators that can power global relevance.
For the rest, he urged build depth before spread, noting that creative businesses must first dominate their home markets with strong fundamentals before scaling across the continent.
Also, bootstrapping builds resilience, while capital accelerates scale, he said, stating that founders must understand the trade-off between control and speed, and deploy capital strategically, not emotionally.
Equally, the value chain must be strengthened end to end, and from training and talent development to production, distribution and monetisation, every link in the chain must be intentionally built.
Meanwhile, Babaeko emphasised that pan-African ambition requires operational discipline, stating that scaling across markets is not romantic but requires governance, process and financial prudence, while the next phase – 12 to 24 months – will require founders to build systems, embrace technology and operate with global standards from day one, among others.
Speaking after the session, Babaeko emphasised the urgency of moving from conversation to execution, saying: “We have had enough conversations about potential. The time now is to build, structure, scale and, most importantly, believe enough in our own stories to take them to the world.”
Craft Addis 2026 continues to position itself as a critical platform for shaping the future of Africa’s creative industries, convening leaders, thinkers and builders committed to unlocking the continent’s full potential.
