In a vibrant art studio tucked between Nairobi’s lively streets, a young fashion designer fine‑tunes her latest collection. Her phone buzzes with mobile money alerts from customers who purchased accessories online. Across town, a music producer finalizes a beat, awaiting payment from a producer halfway across Africa. Their creative journeys are deeply woven into Kenya’s dynamic cultural tapestry — and yet, until recently, access to formal financing has been one of the biggest hurdles facing creative entrepreneurs.
Kenya’s creative economy is substantial and growing, contributing an estimated over 5 percent of GDP and driven by a digitally native youth population eager to turn passion into enterprise. Yet a large proportion of creative enterprises remain informal only around 16 percent are formally registered, according to surveys — limiting their access to structured finance, markets, and business development support.
This is where NCBA’s focus on the creative economy intersects with its broader financial inclusion and youth engagement agenda. The bank recognizes that today’s creative entrepreneurs don’t just need accounts — they need financial tools and support that fit the fluid, project‑based, and often unpredictable nature of creative work.
Initiatives like Elev8 LIVE are helping bridge that gap. These programs create spaces where young creatives can receive mentoring, financial literacy training, and exposure that extends beyond traditional arts circles, bringing them closer to investors, collaborators, and customers. These platforms complement the bank’s digital financial services, offering tailored pathways from inspiration to income.
Digital onboarding through platforms like Loop allows creatives to formalize their earnings in real time. Once onboarded, they can save towards production costs, access personal and business loans, and track revenue streams as they build clientele. This functionality matters because many artists and designers operate with irregular cash flows; having products that adapt to income variability helps smooth financial planning and reduce reliance on high‑cost informal credit.
NCBA’s engagement extends into partnerships and workshops designed to build business capacity. Collaborations with industry stakeholders, including educational bodies and market platforms, equip young creators with know‑how in brand building, digital marketing, and monetisation — areas that are not traditionally taught in arts training but are vital for commercial success.
What makes this approach particularly compelling is how it situates the creative economy within the broader financial ecosystem. The bank’s support links creative entrepreneurs not just to capital, but to networks and markets. This holistic view acknowledges that financial inclusion is not just about transactions, but about enabling sustainable livelihood growth for sectors that are culturally and economically significant.
As Kenya unveils its Creative Economy Vision 2025–2030, charting ambitious pathways to scale film, music, fashion, cultural heritage, and digital arts industries, financial partners like NCBA are playing a practical role in realising these goals. The Vision points to over 500,000 formal jobs and more than 2.1 million informal participants in the creative sector — numbers that will only matter economically if these enterprises can access the finance, markets, and skills they need to grow.
For the young musician tracking beats or the designer lining up her next collection, the support from financial institutions like NCBA is more than transactional. It is a bridge between creativity and commerce — transforming potential into sustainable livelihoods and positioning Kenya’s creative economy as both culturally rich and economically resilient.