By Angela Atabo

Stakeholders in the creative and innovative sector have called on African youths to take the lead in shaping and branding the continent’s identity through innovation, creativity, and self-defined narratives.

The stakeholders made the call on Thursday in Abuja at the 2025 IDCL Africa Conference tagged “FUTURECAST AFRICA: Branding Your Identity with Innovation”.

According to them, FutureCast Africa is a clarion call to creators, coders, thinkers and storytellers across Africa to reclaim the continent’s narrative.

They said that failure to integrate branding with innovation and technology would cost Africa visibility, credibility, and cultural sovereignty, thereby letting others define her in ways that distort truth and dilute her potential.

The Founder of IDCL, Oluwakemi Olorede, said that FutureCast Africa was put together for all brand owners to bring all stakeholders together in one room to showcase Africa brand.

“We see Africa as a talented and growing place where everybody can grow, develop and stand tall.

“Africa is growing fast and we are all part of this movement.

“We put FutureCast Africa together because we are looking at what the future is for Africa and what Africa can achieve in the next future,” she said.

Olorede said there was need for business owners and others to package, rebrand and position themselves well on social media for visibility for their businesses.

Dr Dotun Babatunde, Head of Digital Marketing at Olam Grains Nigeria, said that it was much easier than ever to be able to tell the African story because of the numerous platforms available.

“If you do not tell your story, they will tell it for you. So, you have to find out what works for you, where your audience is, and tell your story.

“Let us come together, irrespective of our cultural divide, as one and tell our stories.

“I have been to other countries and seen what people are doing, I believe that we can tell our story like the Western countries.

“You have the social media platforms to be able to tell that story. You do not need to have expensive media to make it happen. So, let us dig in,” she said.

Also speaking, Mr Aro Leonard, Founder of Klevaro Communications (Klevarest Scenta), said that the objective of the conference was to make youths have a mind shift in their thought process.

According to Leonard, the technology is there, the platforms are there, but people have to accept them and use them to move themselves forward.

“As media organisations, as communications people, as government, as business people, we should begin to appreciate these platforms and use them to push ourselves forward.

“The beautiful thing about it is that when communications people adopt something and move on with it, it moves the country forward.

“We have seen the great things Nigerians do all over the world. Now, if we do not have communications people really pushing and making it global, then we can not move,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Kadiri Abdulrahman