… As AfCFTA hosts roadshow in South Africa
Riding on the success of the maiden edition of the Creatives Connect Afrika Forum and Festival (CCA), which held in Accra, Ghana, last November, the organisers of the continent-wide event, are set for an even more enthralling edition this year.
The CCA, a brainchild of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, is convened in collaboration with Africa Tourism Partners and the Black Star Experience under the Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana.
The forum is aimed at showcasing African creativity and to help creative enterprises to build commercial relationships, access new markets and strengthen their visibility across regional and continental markets under the AfCFTA.
This year, the forum is heightening those objectives in the second edition of CCA, which will hold on a central theme of “Entertainment-Led Tourism: Unlocking Tourism Through Africa’s Creative Industries”, from November 30-December 3, 2026 in Accra, Ghana.
However, the AfCFTA is set for a more exciting edition, amid several pre-event engagements across the country, especially roadshows for buy-in of stakeholders.
In line with the above, AfCFTA held a roadshow in South Africa on the sideline of the African Tourism Leadership Forum (ATLF) 2026, which was held at Meropa Casino Entertainment World in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, South Africa.
The roadshow, according to Emily Mburu-Ndoria, director, Trade in Services, Investment, Intellectual Property Rights and Digital Trade, AfCFTA Secretariat, was brought to the Africa Tourism Leadership Forum 2026 in Polokwane courtesy of the fact that Africa Tourism Partners, the organisers of the forum, is a core partner to CCA.
Speaking on the importance of the roadshow, she explained that the organisers do not want CCA 2026 to be something that is designed in Accra and simply presented to the continent in November.
“We want to build it with the people it is intended to serve. The Roadshow gives us an opportunity to take the conversation beyond Ghana, to engage directly with tourism institutions, creatives, businesses, investors and partners across the continent, and
importantly, to listen,” Mburu-Ndoria said.
“We want to hear from the creatives in this room about the opportunities and challenges they face in turning their talent into sustainable businesses. We want to hear from tourism institutions about how they are using culture and entertainment to strengthen their destinations.
“We want to understand what businesses and investors need in order to participate more actively in this space. And we want to identify partners who can work with us in shaping and delivering CCA 2026”.
Mburu-Ndoria insisted that the South African roadshow was not about asking people to come to Accra in November, but about starting the conversation now, building the partnerships now, and ensuring that the voices and experiences of stakeholders across the continent help shape the CCA platform.
Meanwhile, the roadshow also afforded the audience the opportunity to explore where they can participate, how they can partner with the organisers and how together they can build a platform that creates real opportunities at the intersection of tourism, culture, creativity and trade.
Also at the roadshow, the AfCFTA Secretariat unveiled CCA 2026 programmes to a high-profile audience, and further shared what AfCFTA is building for CCA 2026.
According to the secretariat, theme of the second edition of the Creatives Connect Afrika Forum and Festival, “Entertainment-Led Tourism: Unlocking Tourism Through Africa’s Creative Industries”, is timely because entertainment is increasingly becoming one of the ways in which people discover destinations, connect with cultures and ultimately decide where they want to travel.
“We spoke earlier about Afrobeats, African film, fashion, festivals, sport and the many other forms of creativity that are commanding attention across the world,” the secretariat said.
“And we already see the strong relationship between entertainment and tourism playing out practically across our continent — from Ghana’s Year of Return and the growing December tourism economy, to Nigeria’s Detty
December, South Africa’s Cape Town International Jazz Festivals, and the combination of entertainment, culture and tourism that has become part of Zanzibar’s appeal”.
These examples, according to the AfCFTA Secretariat, show that people will travel for experiences; for music, culture, festivals and entertainment and when they do, the benefits extend beyond the event itself to hotels, restaurants, transport, retail and the wider visitor economy.
With CCA 2026, it noted that the organisers are tasked to go one step further to help creatives to become more deliberate about turning cultural and entertainment appeal into tourism and economic value, which it insisted is not only about attracting visitors from outside Africa.
“We want entertainment to give Africans more reasons to travel within Africa. We want an African considering their next holiday, concert, festival or cultural experience to increasingly look across the continent and say: I want to experience that.
“That is the opportunity we want to unlock through entertainment-led tourism”.
The secretariat also noted that what CCA is trying to achieve with the 2026 edition is to create stronger commercial connections between Africa’s tourism economy and its cultural and creative industries.
“We want to explore how entertainment can help destinations attract visitors and differentiate themselves; how creatives can benefit more meaningfully from the tourism economy; how tourism businesses can incorporate African creativity into the experiences and products they offer; and how investment, technology and
policy can help these connections grow across borders,” it said.
But at the centre of it all must be Africa’s creatives themselves
“CCA is not simply a conversation about creatives. It must be a platform for creatives – a space where artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, content creators, gaming and esports professionals, creative entrepreneurs and others can connect with markets, investors, tourism institutions and potential business partners”.
Highlighting the activities of the forum, the secretariat said that the CCA 2026 experience will begin on November 30, 2026 with a dedicated day of masterclasses and capacity-building engagements, ahead of the formal opening of the forum on December 1, 2026.
The masterclasses are intended to provide practical learning opportunities for creatives, tourism businesses and entrepreneurs, with a focus on strengthening the knowledge and capabilities they need to build,
commercialise and scale their businesses.
From December 1, 2026, the forum will bring together policymakers, tourism leaders, creatives, businesses, investors and development partners to explore the central theme of “Entertainment-Led Tourism”.
The discussions will examine how Africa can more deliberately harness music, film, fashion, festivals, sport, gaming, cuisine and other forms of entertainment and creative expression to stimulate travel, strengthen destination appeal and create new economic opportunities across the tourism and creative value chains.
Importantly, the conversation will go beyond how entertainment can attract visitors. We also want to examine how the economic value generated by this travel can reach the creatives, entrepreneurs and businesses behind the experiences, and how we can build stronger connections between Africa’s entertainment industries, tourism businesses and destinations.
The CCA 2026 will also feature a Sustainable Village of Creative Entrepreneurs, which will go beyond a traditional exhibition.
It is being designed as a business and enterprise development platform, where creative entrepreneurs and SMEs can showcase and sell their products and services, demonstrate innovations, connect with buyers and investors, and explore opportunities for market access
and commercial partnerships.
Importantly, the Village will bring creative entrepreneurs into direct engagement with buyers, investors, distributors, development partners and other potential business partners.
Also, there will be an inaugural Meeting of Heads of African Tourism Boards and Authorities as part of CCA 2026, which will provide a dedicated platform for tourism leaders from across the continent to engage in opportunities for greater collaboration.
On the expected outcomes, the secretariat look forward to the anticipated results the forum’s conversations will produce.
The results anticipated include: new partnerships between creatives and tourism businesses, opportunities to collaborate across destinations, creatives connecting to investors and markets, businesses identifying opportunities across African countries, among others.
But between now and November, the AfCFTA Secretariat hopes to continue working with partners and stakeholders across the continent to shape the programme and build the platform that can help to realise the above ambitions.
Of course, more roadshows are being planned after the South Africa leg in Polokwane.
For Kwakye Donkor, CEO, African Tourism Partners (ATP), a core CCA partner, there is no going back on CCA because the first edition has proven what is possible, especially fostering seamless connections, more collaborations and intra-African tourism, trade and other exchanges across the continent.
The roadshow event also witnessed the launch of the Country Tourism Factsheet by the AfCFTA Secretariat.
In her conclusion, Mburu-Ndoria hoped that the roadshow will not end when the audience leave the room, but will mark the beginning of new conversations, new partnerships and a journey that brings many of them together again in Accra from November 30 to December 3, 2026.
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