CEDF: Between Hope and Suspicion

Nigeria’s Creatives Wait, Watch and Worry

By Zik Zulu Okafor

There is a familiar tension in the air. Across Lagos, Enugu, Asaba, Abuja, Makurdi Kano and beyond. Nigeria’s creative community, filmmakers, producers, musicians, designers, photographers, are asking the same quiet but urgent question. And it is this, “Is this another promise… or another story? Is there any concrete hope for the industry? What is happening to our CEDF? “
I was seated at a neighborhood lounge when eminent television producer and renowned film maker, Zeb Ejiro, stepped in. His eyes found mine instantly. “Zik Zulu!” he hailed.
“I’m glad to see you here. You’re still a journalist. So you should know. Please, what is happening to CEDF?”, he queried, his face bland, yet you could see the curiosity distant in those two windows to his soul. “They promised to start disbursing the fund in January”, he went on.
“But they have been silent. No news, no information, just silence. And this is April. We are worried, very worried”, he lamented.
The man often referred to as the Sheik of Nollywood, an Officer of the Order of the Niger, OON, Ejiro, was only echoing the concern, if not anxiety, now palpable in the cultural and creative sector.
The unveiling of the Creative Economy Development Fund (CEDF) had been met with applause. But several months later, that applause has thinned into skepticism, anxiety, and guarded expectation.
This is because creatives in Nigeria have seen this ‘film’ before. It is a familiar picture, a recurrent enactment.
The current unease is therefore not paranoia. It is memory. For in the past, several well-publicized government-backed funding initiatives have raised hopes like CEDF. Yet at the end, they either failed to reach the right and deserving targets or were simply
captured and indeed fractured by insiders. Some also sadly collapsed under weak execution frameworks. Many creatives can still recall interventions such as The Project ACT Nollywood, the popular YouWin Programme and various Bank of Industry creative loans. These initiatives carried big promises and possibilities. But often, they were deficient in execution. Disbursement was either uneven or
monitoring was weak.
Even their impact was difficult to measure. And in some cases, funds were allegedly misapplied. All these have triggered deep institutional distrust.

However, the CEDF arrived cloaked in bold, somewhat elevated language. It was the kind of mesmerizing lingo often heard among technocratic elites. It was not the dialect of giveaways, nor did it even faintly suggest the promise of free money. The tone was unmistakably business.
Phrases like “Bankable IP,” “Structured financing,” and “Global competitiveness” began to circulate, inspiring a new kind of hope, one that equally demanded a heightened sense of responsibility.
The industry leaned in, but with measured caution.

The Growing Questions
Today however, caution has morphed into concern. CEDF disbursement reportedly was stipulated to start happening in January. But this is April. No information.
Conversation in industry circles has now shifted. From excitement to uneasy speculation. Many are asking if this was another voodoo business. A sort of familiar mirage. This guy simply known as Mark, a Nollywood practitioner, with two hands clasped over his head asked, “Who has received funding so far, I beg you?”
But more questions are now cascading, “Have they selected? If so, what criteria determined the selection? Why is there no published list of beneficiaries, if any? How many applications actually succeeded?
No one is sure of anything .
Some unverified but persistent allegations have also been unleashed. They allege that some politically connected individuals
and even government insiders may have already accessed the funds. The questions are now turning into gnawing fear of being sidelined, a creeping anxiety over unseen interference and a quiet dread that merit may not be enough. Yet, there remains a deep-seated fear of political derailment
and doubt obviously fueled by systemic realities. All these are further accentuated by alleged lingering opaque selection processes and gatekeeping by insiders.

Another Nollywood practitioner who doesn’t want to be named for fear of being possibly victimized because he applied for the fund insisted, “It is the people inside the system that are causing these delays and worries. They have access, they want to decide and control whose application gets approval and who doesn’t. Otherwise, why these delays. And mark my word, this will not be about brilliant application or excellence. It will all be about personal connections and loyalty”, he concluded.
I have to state unequivocally however that at this stage, there is no confirmed evidence of wrongdoing by the managers of the fund. But the absence of transparent communication is fueling suspicion. And in Nigeria’s creative economy, perception quickly becomes reality.
But perhaps to understand the silence, the creatives must first understand the structure of CEDF. Those familiar with the Creative Economy Development Fund affirm that it is not the typical grant scheme we know in Nollywood. It does not operate on the old logic and culture of disbursing support and stepping aside. Instead, this is built as a hybrid investment vehicle anchored within government frameworks, yet deliberately modeled after private-sector discipline. So, it is less a pool of aid and more of a mechanism for calculated investment.
Digging deep into the affairs of CEDF, I tend to believe that its silence may not be due to absence but process. This process seems in fact dense with activity but remains elusive to the ears of the public and even the media.
This seemingly elongated silence may also be due to the fact that CEDF represents a decisive departure from the sentimental economics that have long defined support for our creative sector. This is no longer about patronage dressed as policy. It is about capital, structured, disciplined, and expectant.
For the first time in our creative history, funding is being expressed through a spectrum of instruments like grants but sparingly, and largely for social impact and loans, with insistence on repayment . And then there is equity. This is the boldest of commitments, where your belief in an idea must be matched by a stake in its future.
But the more radical shift is the recognition of intellectual property as collateral. Film rights, music catalogues, digital assets once seen as intangible and considered difficult to value are now being treated as bankable instruments. This should be something of pride l. Because it places creatives on a deserved pedestal.
So, what we are witnessing may be a depth of due diligence previously foreign to the sector. This therefore is a new terrain. And new terrain demands slower, surer steps. But the good news is that disbursement is imminent. So, the silence may be broken shortly.
I chatted with Obi Asika, Director-General of National Council for Arts and Culture, a towering figure and consequential advocate of the creative industry over the last three decades. Having made some calls, he assured me that creatives would be hearing from CEDF this month of April . He, in fact, assured me that those who applied would be receiving emails very soon. He also commented on disbursements.
“I just had a chat with one of them (CEDF managers). They say there’s going to be a lot of activities soon and those who submitted their applications will receive emails and there should be clarity. But I don’t believe there have been any disbursements or drawdowns to date”, he clarified.
Despite Asika’s hope inspiring revelations, it must be stated unequivocally that the most significant weakness of the CEDF at this moment is not structural but communicative.
There are no regular updates. No visible markers of progress. Not on the media or emails of applicants. And in a landscape where skepticism is the default setting, opacity becomes a liability. Silence, no matter how well-intentioned, breeds suspicion.
As Nollywood top director, writer and critic, Charles Novia puts it, “We haven’t heard anything. There is no information coming from anywhere. Just silence, silence and silence. So, I don’t know what’s going on”.
Asked if he heard of some rumoured disbursements, he retorted, “Ah, I didn’t hear oo. But you know nothing is impossible. We are watching. All I can assure you is that we will not allow any preferential treatment. We will dig out any attempt at manipulation and we will fight it. I expect them to be professional and to work with integrity”, he added matter-of-factly.
But the Executive Director of National Film and Video Censors Board, NCDMB, Shuaibu Husseini, a doctorate degree holder in Mass Communication, is convinced that CEDF is working assidously on the project. He believes the delay is due to process and that the Minister in charge, the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, is very committed to actualising the project. He added confidently, “This thing will happen. The Honourable Minister has good intentions. Very soon there will be announcements. I am sure. May be in another one or two weeks. CEDF, I can assure you, is not audio money. It is real”, he added amidst laughter.
And just like Asika and Husseini predicted, the CEDF on Monday, April 20 sent emails to some creatives.
In it they thanked the creatives for taking the time to apply for the fund. This indeed suggests it was their first communication with the applicants. They assured the creatives that “the CEDF is a firm commitment of the Honourable Minister and the Ministry.”
But what must have been more important to the creatives is the unambiguous assurance that their applications are receiving attention. “Your application is being retained and will be reviewed as the fund moves into its deployment phase in Q3 this year”, the mail stated.
“CEDF will be in touch with clear guidance on next steps, including whether your existing application can move forward or whether any updates will be needed”, the Fund concluded.

With the mood of the creative industry today, the allegations, growing suspicion and distrust, I think the the managers of the CEDF must step forward deliberately now, beyond these mails, to rev up their activities on the media. Periodic updates should be published. Stories of progress must be told and it shouldn’t come like a propaganda. There must be proof and clarity. Selection criteria must be clarified, not guarded. Rumours must be addressed, not ignored. And perhaps most importantly, the industry must be engaged. Not spoken at, but spoken with.
If this happens, the timeline ahead will become plausible and promising.
The CEDF, from all indications, could become the most transformative financial instrument the Nigerian creative industry has ever seen, a model not just for Africa, but for emerging creative economies globally.
But it could also dissolve into that all-too-familiar archive of missed opportunities; well-conceived but suboptimally delivered and ultimately, ineffective.
The difference will lie in trust, in transparency, and in the discipline of execution.
And right now, whether acknowledged or not, the entire industry watches intently closely, albeit with a renewed sense of hope.

*Zik Zulu Okafor wrote in from Lagos.