Ibadan Creators Summit to Equip Young Talents for Sustainable Careers, Businesses

…Convener says city must stop exporting creative talents to Lagos, Abuja

The maiden Ibadan Creators Summit will equip young talents with practical skills and knowledge to build sustainable careers and businesses from their creative abilities, the organisers have said.

The summit, themed “Build. Monetize. Scale.”, is scheduled to hold on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at 3–5 Harvesters Drive, Ring Road, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Speaking at a press conference in Ibadan on Friday, the Convener, Amb. Dr Adesola Adeyemi, said the initiative was created to address some of the challenges limiting the growth of creators in Ibadan, particularly inadequate access to information, business opportunities and industry connections.

Adeyemi said Ibadan had continued to produce talented young people in content creation, photography, videography, writing, presenting and other creative fields, but many of them were compelled to relocate to Lagos, Abuja and other cities when their careers began to gain traction.

He said the trend had resulted in the city continually producing creative talents only to lose them to other locations.

According to him, creators were not leaving Ibadan because the city lacked talent, but because there had not been enough structures and platforms to connect them with brands, agencies and other stakeholders.

“They are not leaving because Ibadan lacks talent. They are leaving because for a long time, Ibadan lacked a table. No room where the deals happen. No structure. No place where a brand and a creator can sit across from each other and do business properly.

“The Ibadan Creators Summit exists to build that table,” he said.

Adeyemi explained that the summit’s theme was designed to provide creators with a clear progression from developing their skills and personal brands to monetising them and eventually scaling their creative ventures.

He said the “Build” component would help creators establish solid foundations instead of relying solely on viral content, while “Monetize” would focus on turning creative skills and audiences into sustainable sources of income.

The “Scale” component, he added, would expose established creators to strategies for expanding from individual operations into structured businesses with teams and systems.

“Build, because too many creators are chasing virality when they have not built anything that lasts. A viral video is an event. A brand is an asset.

“Monetize, because passion does not pay school fees. If you are doing this full time, it has to feed you.

“And Scale, because the goal is not to remain a one-person operation forever. The goal is a studio, a team, a business that runs whether or not you feel inspired that morning,” Adeyemi said.

He disclosed that the summit would feature practical sessions on pricing creative services, pitching to brands, running effective advertisements, audience development, content monetisation and building sustainable creative businesses.

The convener also said attendance at the summit would be free, explaining that the decision was intended to ensure that financial constraints did not prevent young creators from participating.

“The creator who needs this the most is usually the one who cannot afford a ticket. Charging at the door would have filtered out exactly the people I built this for,” he said.

Adeyemi further disclosed that more than 3,000 participants were expected to attend the maiden edition, describing the event as an opportunity to bring creators, brands, agencies and digital platforms into the same space.

He said another motivation for organising the summit was the absence of adequate data documenting Ibadan’s creator economy.

“When I went looking for data on the Ibadan creator economy, there was none. Nothing at city level. Nigeria has numbers. Lagos has numbers. Ibadan does not exist on paper,” he stated.

He explained that the lack of data could make it difficult for brands, government and other institutions to adequately recognise the size and potential of the city’s creative sector when opportunities, funding and programmes were being considered.

According to him, the summit will also help increase the visibility of creators already building careers and businesses in Ibadan.

Adeyemi urged the media to treat the creative economy as more than entertainment, noting its potential to contribute to employment, entrepreneurship, wealth creation and the wider Nigerian economy.

“The creator economy is an economy. It employs people. It moves money. It exports Nigerian culture to the world and brings foreign currency back into homes in Ibadan.

“What we are doing on the 5th is economic development work,” he said.

He said the long-term ambition was to make Ibadan a city where creators could build successful careers and attract other creative professionals, rather than one where young talents felt compelled to relocate to Lagos or Abuja to succeed.

“Ibadan should be a place a creator moves to, not a place a creator leaves.

“I want a young person here to see somebody who looks like them, talks like them, still lives here, and is earning properly from what they make. Then the question stops being, ‘How do I get to Lagos?’ and becomes, ‘How do I get to that level?’” he said.

The summit will feature speakers including Saleem King, Stella Matthew, Balogun Danjuma, Tessy Olota, Kemi Deborah, Folashade Ogunyemi, Hon. Seyi Adisa, Samuel Okike, Folakemi Mighty, Adebayo Ibrahim, Alamu Akinkumi, Ajoke Lasisi, Victoria Ajiboye, Ayo Adams, Babatunmise Agboola, Olivia Umeh, The Coach and Hon. Akinsete.