Leaders from Africa’s creative, healthcare, and financial sectors will convene at the Africa Film Finance Forum in Lagos on September 18, 2025, to explore how films can mobilise private sector investment for the continent’s health care transformation. The session aims to unlock the power of storytelling as a catalyst for long-term impact.
Film Meets Healthcare
Executives and thought leaders across Africa’s private sector, healthcare, and creative industries are preparing to converge at the Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, for an ambitious roundtable put together by the African Business Coalition for Health (ABCHealth).
The session, “Health on the Big Screen – From Film Reel to Real Impact” is aimed at Mobilizing Private Sector Capital for Africa’s Health Care Sector through Stories. This would mark a pivotal moment for harnessing the continent’s film industry to propel healthcare investment and reform.
Slated to hold on Thursday, September 18, 2025, the roundtable is part of the Africa Film Finance Forum (AFFF), reflecting growing recognition that film and media are instrumental in driving awareness, empathy, and potential capital flows for Africa’s healthcare sector.
African Voices Lead Transformation
The roundtable underscores Africa’s unique voice in leveraging creative storytelling to inspire action. While Western media has long showcased medical dramas such as “Scrubs” and “New Amsterdam,” Africa is catching up, through landmark productions like “Soul City” in South Africa, “Shuga” spanning Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Other regional dramas include Zimbabwe’s “Neria,” Kenya’s “Veve,” and Burkina Faso’s “Talia’s Journey.”
These films go beyond entertainment. They are showcasing the needed backbone of advocacy campaigns, shifting public perception, and mobilising both citizens and investors. For example, “Soul City” reached more than 70% of South Africa’s population and contributed to increased condom use and HIV testing. On the other hand, “Shuga” is credited with raising awareness and driving behavioural changes among millions of young Africans on issues such as HIV prevention and mental health.
African leadership in the film sector has been further supported by strategic investments, notably the African Export-Import Bank’s $1 billion Africa Film Fund, partnerships with the International Finance Corporation, and programs led by the African Development Bank.
The region’s growing young population, estimated to be about 995.3 million aged 15 to 34 in 2020, with about 60% below the age of 25. This is expected to grow to a whopping 181.4% by 2100, representing an audience that consumes vast amounts of digital video, making film a critical platform for shaping health literacy and catalysing action.
Bridging the Gap
Africa’s healthcare sector faces persistent challenges, including underfunded systems, infrastructure shortfalls, and the dual burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Traditional donors and government funding, while important, remain insufficient. Engaging the private sector is progressively recognised as essential; however, access to capital for both health innovation and creative projects is constrained by institutional barriers.
The session’s objectives reflect an urgent call for collaborative approaches:
- Demonstrate how storytelling can drive awareness and investment urgency around healthcare challenges
- Showcase narratives that have successfully attracted funding or shifted investor perspectives
- Examine institutional obstacles limiting creative industry access to private capital
- Explore financing models and compelling business cases to activate private sector support
ABCHealth, led by CEO Dr. Mories Atoki, is facilitating a dialogue aimed at actionable cross-sector partnerships. The roundtable brings together key participants, such as C-suite executives, filmmakers, journalists, healthcare professionals, regulators, financiers, and cultural influencers, all committed to advancing the alignment between storytelling and substantive healthcare improvement.
Pathways to Real Impact
The discussion themes focus on mechanisms to connect storytellers with investors, sharing successful partnerships and business models, and balancing the creativity needed for persuasive advocacy with the rigour of data-driven investment decision-making.
Expected outcomes include greater awareness among private investors of the de-risking power of stories, practical frameworks for filmmakers and entrepreneurs to catalyse investment, and strengthened collaboration between healthcare innovators, financiers, and creative leaders.
Implications for Africa’s Future
With Africa’s film industry poised to surpass $20 billion market valuation, and unprecedented digital engagement among youth, storytelling has become a key platform to drive behavioural change and system reform. Integrating film into national health strategies and embedding collaborations with health organisations and funders, African leaders will reimage both public health delivery and the role of culture in social innovation.
ABCHealth’s roundtable hopes to demonstrate that harnessing the synergy between cinema and healthcare could shape attitudes, unlock an increased flow of private capital needed for sustainable impact. The future of healing in Africa may rest in the power of narrative, the big screen, clinics and policy rooms.
For further information, stakeholders can reach Dr. Mories Atoki, CEO of ABCHealth, or Communications Lead
