Afrobeats icon and entrepreneur D’Banj deepened his role as a business mogul and advocate for African creatives after presenting The C.R.E.A.M. Platform 3.0 at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2026 in Los Angeles, followed by strategic engagements at the Music Business Conference and the Africa Soft Power Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
Across a two-week global engagement tour, D’banj strengthened his position as one of Africa’s leading cultural entrepreneurs, convening with international investors, executives, and industry leaders to advance conversations around financing, ownership, and digital infrastructure for Africa’s creative economy.
At Milken Institute’s panel titled “Culture is Capital: Investing in Africa’s Booming Creative Economy,” D’Banj joined Aubrey Hruby, Co-Founder and General Partner at Tofino Capital; Nicholas Weinstock, Founder and President of Invention Studios; Shain Shapiro, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Music Ecosystems; and Tunde Balogun, CEO and Co-Founder of LVRN Records.The panel examined growth in African creative exports, capital flows, and how investment is creating jobs, elevating talent, and delivering financial returns.
According to the Milken Institute, the goal of the session was to bring together leaders from sports, entertainment, publishing, investment, and tourism to explore how Africa’s creative economy is moving from cultural influence to economic scale.
D’Banj used the platform to present the relaunch of The C.R.E.A.M. Platform 3.0, an acronym for Creative Reality Entertainment Arts and Music. The platform functions as a DIY, one-stop digital ecosystem for African creatives, providing access to recording, video production, distribution, and funding through web platforms and USSD code. It allows talent to submit content directly from home, bypassing traditional label barriers.
The global push follows Afreximbank’s 2025 acquisition of an equity stake in The C.R.E.A.M. Platform through its subsidiary, Canex Inc. The deal provides platform users access to Canex Inc.’s $3 billion creative sector fund. A 2017 KPMG audit previously valued The C.R.E.A.M. Platform at $130 million. Beneficiaries are already accessing financing for projects in renewable energy and electric vehicles.
D’Banj disclosed, “I am honoured to continue bringing Nigeria to the world with like-minded people who support the creative economic growth of Africa, with The C.R.E.A.M. Platform at the epicenter of this movement. ‘The feedback has been amazing and I am encouraged that our message of leveraging digital to maximize talents is resonating across divides,” he added.
In recent years, D’Banj has expanded his focus beyond entertainment, driving The C.R.E.A.M. Platform as a pan-African vehicle connecting creative talent with global investors, strategic partnerships, and structured financing opportunities capable of scaling Africa’s creative sector globally.