Founder and CEO 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, the session brought together cross-continental expertise to interrogate the future of Africa’s creative economy, with a focus on scale, structure, and sustainability.
Babaeko was joined on the panel by Bernard Laurendeau, Managing Partner, Laurendeau & Associates (Japan) and Zekarias Amsalu, Co-founder & MD, Africa Fintech Summit (USA)
The session was moderated by Frances Quarcoopome of JamJar Company Ltd. (Nairobi).
During the discussion, Babaeko 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.
Key Talking Points from Steve Babaeko
* Infrastructure is the real gap
The difference between Africa’s creative output and global benchmarks is not talent, but infrastructure across production, distribution, payments, and intellectual property protection.
* AfCFTA must move from policy to practice
The African Continental Free Trade Area has the potential to unlock seamless movement of talent, ideas, and capital across borders, but execution is critical.
* Culture is Africa’s unfair advantage
Africa’s stories, traditions, and creative expressions are not just assets; they are strategic differentiators that can power global relevance.
* Build depth before spread
Creative businesses must first dominate their home markets with strong fundamentals before scaling across the continent.
* Bootstrapping builds resilience, capital accelerates scale
Founders must understand the trade-off between control and speed, and deploy capital strategically, not emotionally.
* The value chain must be strengthened end to end
From training and talent development to production, distribution, and monetisation, every link in the chain must be intentionally built.
* Pan African ambition requires operational discipline
Scaling across markets is not romantic. It requires governance, process, and financial prudence.
* The next phase will demand more than hustle
The coming 12 to 24 months will require founders to build systems, embrace technology, and operate with global standards from day one.
* Partnerships must be rooted in value, not dependency
True collaboration, especially with global partners, must be based on mutual respect, shared value, and long-term alignment.
* Africa must own its narrative
The continent cannot outsource its storytelling. The future belongs to those who tell their own stories, on their own terms.
Speaking after the session, Babaeko emphasised the urgency of moving from conversation to execution.
“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.
Steve Babaeko is the Founder and CEO of X3M Ideas, a leading pan-African advertising agency with operations across multiple markets. He is widely recognised for championing African creativity on the global stage and for driving conversations around building sustainable creative industries on the continent.
