NECLive, West Africa’s leading annual gathering of entertainment and creative industry professionals, has announced its 11th edition, set to take place at Alliance Française, Lagos, on November 12, 2026.
Organised by BHM, ID Africa and the editorial board of Nigerian Entertainment Today, the conference will bring together leading voices from across Nigeria’s creative economy for a timely conversation on how the country can turn the strength of its domestic market into greater ownership, investment and global influence.
The 2026 edition is themed “Home Advantage: Transforming Local Demand into Global Power,” placing Nigeria’s growing domestic audience at the centre of conversations about the future of its creative industries.
For years, Nigeria’s creative success has been measured largely by its ability to travel, from Afrobeats reaching global audiences to Nollywood building international recognition and Nigerian creators finding new audiences across digital platforms. But as the global entertainment landscape continues to shift, NECLive 2026 will ask a different question: what more can Nigeria build from the audience it already has at home?
The theme reflects an emerging opportunity for Nigeria to see its domestic market not simply as a destination for consumption, but as an important source of economic value, investment and creative ownership. With millions of Nigerians engaging with locally produced music, film, fashion, media and digital content, the scale and diversity of this demand presents an opportunity to strengthen the businesses and structures behind the creativity.
Yet, converting audience demand into lasting industry value will require more than a large consumer base. Issues including affordability, limited audience growth, dependence on diaspora markets and unequal access to opportunities continue to shape how value is created and distributed across the sector.
“Nigeria has already demonstrated that its creative industries can capture the world’s attention. The next opportunity is to understand how the strength of our domestic market can help us build greater ownership, attract investment and strengthen our position globally” said Ayeni Adekunle, Founder and Convener of NECLive.
“Home Advantage is about moving the conversation beyond how far our creativity can travel to what we can build from the market that exists right here. It is about ownership, investment and creating stronger systems that allow local demand to translate into sustainable power,” he added.
Since its launch in 2013, NECLive has evolved into a platform for industry dialogue, networking, innovation and policy advocacy, bringing together creative professionals, business leaders, policymakers, investors, brands and emerging talent. Previous editions have hosted more than 500 industry experts as speakers and panellists, attracted over 100,000 participants and reached audiences across more than 50 countries.
The 2026 conference will build on this legacy by examining the relationship between local audiences and global ambition, with discussions expected to explore how creative businesses can build sustainable models around domestic demand, how investment can translate into greater ownership, and how stronger domestic ecosystems can help Nigerian creators and businesses build scale, negotiate from a position of strength and compete more effectively in international markets.
The conversations will also consider the realities facing the market. While Nigeria has a large and highly engaged population, questions around purchasing power, audience expansion, monetisation and access remain central to determining whether local demand can become a sustainable economic advantage.
Through Home Advantage, NECLive 2026 will bring together stakeholders from across entertainment, media, technology, business and policy to consider how Nigeria can strengthen the value chain around its creativity — creating, owning, financing, distributing and ultimately exporting more of its intellectual property from a position of strength at home.
For more than a decade, NECLive has provided a platform for critical conversations, partnerships and opportunities shaping Nigeria’s entertainment and creative economy. The 2026 edition continues this tradition by focusing on one of the sector’s most important questions: how Nigeria can convert the power of its home market into lasting ownership, investment and global influence.
