The Nigerian Entertainment Conference (NECLive), West Africa’s annual gathering of entertainment and creative industry professionals, says it will hold its 11th edition on Nov. 12 at Alliance Française, Lagos.
NECLive in statement released on their official Instagram page on Friday in Lagos, also announced the theme of the 2026 edition as: “Home Advantage: Transforming Local Demand into Global Power”
The conference is organised by BHM, ID Africa and the editorial board of Nigerian Entertainment Today.
According to the statement, the event will bring together leading voices across Nigeria’s creative economy to examine how the country can leverage its growing domestic market.
The statement said the theme would place Nigeria’s domestic audience at the centre of discussions on the future of the 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 statement said.
It noted that Nigeria’s large and diverse demand for locally produced music, film, fashion, media and digital content presented an opportunity to strengthen the businesses and structures supporting the sector.
NECLive identified affordability, limited audience growth, dependence on diaspora markets and unequal access to opportunities as some of the challenges affecting value creation and distribution.
The statement quoted Ayeni Adekunle, Founder and Convener of NECLive, as saying that the conference would focus on how the strength of Nigeria’s domestic market can help build greater ownership and attract investment.
“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”.
He said the theme was about moving the conversation beyond how the country’s creativity could travel to what could be built from the local market.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that since its launch in 2013, NECLive has hosted more than 500 industry experts as speakers and panellists, attracted over 100,000 participants and reached audiences in more than 50 countries.
The 2026 edition is expected to examine sustainable business models, investment, ownership, monetisation, intellectual property and the development of stronger domestic creative ecosystems.
