Bennett Oghifo
Africa’s rising movie, music and tv industries are producing growing demand for skilled manufacturing and broadcasting providers, however a scarcity of technical infrastructure is forcing media firms to outsource important operations to Europe and the Middle East, limiting the continent’s means to retain the financial worth of its inventive output.
Broadcasting Center Africa is searching for to handle the hole by means of a media infrastructure hub in Mauritius, bringing collectively tv studios, post-production amenities, broadcasting operations, engineering providers and a safe information centre to serve African and worldwide media organisations.
The proposed facility, anticipated to open in 2029, will kind the technical core of MediaCity Mauritius, a wider improvement designed to accommodate manufacturing firms, broadcasters, expertise corporations, educational establishments, coaching centres, start-ups and worldwide traders.
Chief Executive Officer of BCA and MediaCity Mauritius, Najib Gouiaa, disclosed this in an interview on the 2026 Creative Africa Nexus Weekend, CANEX WKND, organised by the African Export-Import Bank in Lagos from November 5 to eight.
BCA shared a stand on the occasion with its European accomplice, Broadcasting Center Europe, and MediaCity Mauritius to current the mission to producers, broadcasters, streaming platforms, telecommunications operators, traders and different members in Africa’s inventive industries.
Gouiaa stated the continent had the inventive expertise, audiences and worldwide demand to assist a thriving media business, however lacked the technical infrastructure required to show inventive productions into sustainable companies.
He argued that the issue was not a scarcity of inventive capability however the absence of an built-in manufacturing and distribution ecosystem, leaving firms to depend upon overseas amenities for a number of levels of their operations.
“The talent is there, and so are the audiences and the demand. What’s missing is the technical chain that turns creative work into a lasting business. African creative projects do not fail because of a lack of talent but because the support around them doesn’t exist. People work in isolation, skills are scattered, and at every stage some of the value leaves the continent,” he stated.
According to him, the financial worth misplaced goes past the price of outsourcing manufacturing providers, extending to employment, technical experience, skilled improvement and industrial alternatives related with the media worth chain.
He defined {that a} manufacturing shot in Africa may nonetheless depend upon amenities in Europe for enhancing and post-production, whereas the tv channel transmitting it may be operated from Dubai. Its archives could possibly be saved in Europe, with the supporting information hosted outdoors the continent.
“Those are the stages where the margins, the jobs and the careers are, and they’re being exported just as demand for African capacity is taking off,” Gouiaa stated.
He added that worldwide media teams with Africa-focused operations additionally tended to find their departments in Dubai, London or Paris quite than on the continent due to considerations about infrastructure reliability, operational dangers and the supply of personnel educated to worldwide requirements.
He stated the urge for food for establishing extra operations in Africa existed, however firms wanted assurances that they might entry dependable amenities, handle dangers and recruit appropriately educated groups.
According to him, bringing these operations nearer to the African markets they serve could be within the industrial curiosity of worldwide media teams, supplied the required infrastructure and operational ensures have been accessible.
Gouiaa stated BCA’s method was knowledgeable by media infrastructure fashions in worldwide markets, significantly Dubai Media City, MediaCityUK and RTL City in Luxembourg, the place manufacturing firms, broadcasters, technical operators and coaching establishments function inside built-in developments.
He stated the mannequin allowed companies to share infrastructure, entry specialised providers and work extra intently with different gamers within the business quite than working independently.
“The places that succeed are the ones that put everything on one site. A studio with no post-production, a broadcast centre with no producers nearby, a media school with no equipment to train on: each of these struggles on its own. Put them together and they feed each other,” he stated.
Under the proposed association, BCA will present the technical providers supporting media manufacturing, broadcasting, content material administration and distribution, whereas MediaCity Mauritius will present the broader enterprise and institutional surroundings.
The BCA facility will home tv studios and their management rooms, amenities for stay and recorded manufacturing, post-production suites, a grasp management room, satellite tv for pc and web hyperlinks, engineering laboratories and an auditorium.
It may even have a safe information centre licensed to the worldwide ISO 27001 customary, permitting content material to be hosted, saved and archived in Africa.
The constructing is being purpose-built by MediaCity Mauritius to specs developed with BCE and is scheduled to open in 2029.
Gouiaa described BCA as a one-stop technical service centre for African and worldwide media and inventive firms, dealing with operations from manufacturing to ultimate supply.
He stated the corporate would function to the requirements of main European media teams, offering purchasers with entry to technical capability with out requiring them to amass and keep all the required tools themselves.
Explaining the corporate’s enterprise mannequin, he stated media organisations would buy operational capability beneath service agreements with assured service ranges quite than make investments closely in infrastructure, tools and technical personnel.
“Because our clients don’t buy equipment. They buy capacity, under a contract with guaranteed service levels, backed by teams working around the clock and equipment we maintain and replace. That turns a heavy upfront investment into a predictable running cost,” he stated.
He stated the association would allow purchasers to launch tv channels inside six months as a substitute of 18 months, keep broadcasting operations by means of managed backup programs and develop into new markets, languages and platforms with out constructing new infrastructure from scratch.
Gouiaa stated the mannequin mirrored the method adopted by main European media service suppliers, which had more and more moved advanced technical operations to specialist service centres.
He recognized six classes of potential clients for BCA, together with worldwide tv channels, African private and non-private broadcasters, telecommunications and cell operators, sports activities rights holders, content material producers and promoting companies, in addition to worldwide media teams searching for an operational base in Africa.
For worldwide channels searching for to determine an Africa-ready feed with out recruiting an area operations workforce, BCA plans to supply a 180-day channel launch equipment.
African broadcasters needing to maintain their channels on air whereas modernising their operations can have entry to managed catastrophe restoration providers.
Telecommunications and cell operators increasing into video providers will be capable of use a video operations laboratory, whereas sports activities rights holders can have entry to a stay operations package deal for changing sporting occasions into stay and near-live content material throughout totally different platforms.
Producers and promoting companies will likely be supplied a supply-chain dash designed to maneuver productions from the manufacturing stage to distribution.
International media teams searching for to determine an Africa-facing base may even have entry to a market-entry package deal combining managed providers and entry to the corporate’s information centre.
Gouiaa stated the growing complexity of the media business had made it troublesome for particular person broadcasters, telecommunications operators and content material homeowners to handle each facet of their operations internally.
He listed conventional broadcasting, streaming functions, free ad-supported channels, video-on-demand providers, focused promoting, multilingual content material variations, rights administration, stay occasions and distribution throughout a number of platforms as actions requiring specialised technical capabilities.
He stated organisations additionally wanted to keep up round the clock operations whereas managing the price of tools, personnel and infrastructure.
On the expansion of Africa’s digital content material market, Gouiaa stated greater than 560 streaming providers now operated throughout the continent, whereas Afrobeats and Amapiano had helped make African music one of many fastest-growing inventive sectors globally.
However, he stated 97 per cent of streaming content material consumed in Africa was imported, illustrating the disparity between the continent’s rising urge for food for digital content material and its capability to provide, end and distribute it.
He argued that establishing extra streaming platforms alone wouldn’t tackle the underlying drawback, because the business wanted the technical infrastructure and specialist providers required to assist content material throughout totally different distribution channels.
Gouiaa additionally recognized music as probably the most dynamic however least geared up segments of Africa’s inventive business.
He stated African artists and report labels had gained worldwide recognition by means of international streaming platforms however remained constrained by insufficient amenities for recording, filming, enhancing and managing the rights to their work at broadcast high quality.
According to him, live shows, stay periods and festivals require specialised infrastructure to seize performances, combine the recordings, archive the content material and convert them into industrial merchandise.
He stated BCA meant to assist this phase alongside the manufacturing firms, occasion areas and coaching campus deliberate for MediaCity Mauritius.
BCE partnership and abilities improvement
A central a part of the mission is its partnership with Broadcasting Center Europe, the technical operator of RTL Group, which is able to present the expertise, operational experience and coaching required to determine BCA’s operations.
Gouiaa stated BCE had spent 25 years managing important broadcasting operations, had groups in seven nations and served greater than 400 purchasers, together with RTL, Radio France, Arte and France Télévisions.
The European firm additionally has expertise in Africa and the Indian Ocean, having moved Ethiopia’s public broadcaster, Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, into new amenities incorporating studios, an information centre and broadcasting programs. It additionally carried out the whole modernisation of Antenne Réunion.
He stated the partnership would permit BCA to undertake established European broadcasting programs and operational procedures whereas creating the capability to serve African markets.
BCA will initially function from BCE’s amenities at RTL City in Luxembourg for 3 years earlier than transferring its operations to Mauritius.
Gouiaa stated the association was designed to permit the corporate to determine its enterprise, serve its first clients, prepare personnel and take a look at its infrastructure on precise productions earlier than the Mauritius hub opens.
Under the plan, the tools will likely be transferred to Mauritius, licensed groups will observe, and the corporate expects to have its first purchasers already on board.
He stated the technique was meant to cut back the supply dangers related with main infrastructure initiatives by testing the operational mannequin earlier than the everlasting facility was accomplished.
BCE will present three primary elements for the mission: expertise, operational experience {and professional} coaching.
The expertise element will cowl the ability’s design, broadcasting and web protocol programs, in addition to tools choice and procurement based mostly on the requirements of a significant European operator.
The operational element will contain transferring the experience required to handle round the clock broadcasting, keep service continuity, reply to technical incidents, management high quality and safe content material.
Gouiaa stated the coaching element would make sure that BCA’s personnel may function the programs to BCE’s requirements from the start.
He stated the corporate deliberate to coach 160 younger Africans at BCE’s amenities in Luxembourg, the place they’d study utilizing the identical tools anticipated to be put in in Mauritius.
The engineers, technicians and operators recruited by BCA would achieve sensible expertise engaged on precise productions and procure skilled certification quite than rely solely on classroom instruction.
Gouiaa stated the target was to have the personnel purchase three years of expertise earlier than the Mauritius facility opens, making a pool of African specialists with worldwide publicity.
He described professionalisation as a cornerstone of the mission, arguing that the event of technical abilities was important to constructing a sustainable media business on the continent.
BCE will stay concerned after the switch as BCA’s supervisory and assist accomplice beneath a proper providers and strategic partnership settlement.
The settlement contains contractual milestones masking programs integration, workers certification, ISO 27001 certification and the ability’s official opening.
Gouiaa stated BCE’s experience would additionally stay accessible on demand for purchasers requiring specialised design work, particular installations or day-to-day operational assist.
MediaCity Mauritius and regional ambitions
Beyond the technical amenities, Gouiaa stated the broader MediaCity Mauritius improvement would carry collectively content material creators, media firms, expertise companies, educational establishments, coaching centres, start-ups and worldwide traders.
He stated finding BCA inside the improvement would offer entry to potential clients, shared infrastructure and a workforce educated within the applied sciences and requirements utilized by the corporate.
He cited RTL City in Luxembourg for example of how bringing broadcasting channels, content material groups and technical operators collectively may enhance collaboration and cut back the necessity for intermediaries.
According to him, having studios, management rooms, broadcast centres and newsrooms inside the identical improvement would permit companies to work straight with each other.
He stated firms working inside MediaCity Mauritius would grow to be potential clients for BCA, whereas sharing infrastructure and specialist providers would enhance effectivity with out compromising broadcasting requirements.
The improvement’s educational companions would additionally assist prepare personnel within the applied sciences {and professional} requirements required by BCA.
Gouiaa added that occasions hosted at MediaCity would offer alternatives for the corporate to show its capabilities and entice new clients.
He stated the event would grow to be extra useful as extra tenants, companions and establishments joined it, strengthening the providers accessible to companies working inside the ecosystem.
On its buyer acquisition technique, Gouiaa stated BCA was already in discussions with potential purchasers throughout the streaming, telecommunications, tv broadcasting and content material manufacturing industries.
The firm has recognized 30 organisations with urgent operational wants, budgets to handle these wants and decision-makers it may well attain.
He stated the plan was to transform the discussions into paid assessments of the organisations’ operations and establish areas the place BCA may enhance their processes.
Those assessments would then result in pilot initiatives, together with channel launches, which the corporate may use as references to draw extra clients.
Gouiaa stated BCA was concentrating on each African and worldwide media organisations.
For African clients, the corporate would offer entry to infrastructure they won’t have the monetary assets or technical capability to construct and function independently.
For worldwide firms searching for to provide content material in Africa or work with native companions, BCA would provide an entry level into the market with out requiring them to imagine the total operational dangers of creating their very own amenities.
He stated the presence of places of work, occasion areas, enterprise companions and expert personnel inside MediaCity Mauritius would offer extra advantages past the technical providers accessible on the broadcasting centre.
Gouiaa stated the corporate was additionally searching for to draw worldwide media teams that at present managed their Africa-focused operations from outdoors the continent.
Why Mauritius?
Explaining the selection of Mauritius over different African media and enterprise centres equivalent to Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg, Gouiaa stated the island supplied a mixture of political and enterprise stability, worldwide connectivity and multilingual capabilities.
He stated Mauritius may serve French-, English- and Portuguese-speaking markets whereas offering a enterprise surroundings acquainted to worldwide media organisations.
He cited ensures for overseas possession, exemptions from duties on technical tools, manufacturing incentives and information safety laws aligned with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation as components supporting the selection.
Gouiaa additionally pointed to Mauritius Telecom’s 2026–2029 technique, which positions the nation as a digital gateway between Africa and Asia by means of sovereign cloud infrastructure, synthetic intelligence and innovation corridors.
He stated the MediaCity improvement would additionally assist construct an area pool of operators, editors, metadata specialists and broadcast assist personnel.
According to him, the placement would allow BCA to serve main enterprise centres together with Johannesburg, Nairobi, Paris, Dubai and Mumbai.
He stated the mission was aligned with the African Continental Free Trade Area’s Protocol on Digital Trade as a result of shared manufacturing and distribution infrastructure may make it simpler for African content material companies to function throughout the continent’s 54 markets.
Gouiaa stated Mauritius had signed the settlement and supplied sturdy mental property safety, making it an acceptable base for a enterprise searching for to assist cross-border content material manufacturing and distribution.
He described BCA as the kind of inventive infrastructure funding that CANEX was established to assist, arguing that such initiatives may entice financing whereas producing measurable returns by means of exports, industrial improvement and abilities acquisition.
He stated Afreximbank had recognized infrastructure and abilities shortages as main constraints going through Africa’s inventive industries, including that BCA was meant to contribute to addressing these challenges.
Looking past Mauritius, Gouiaa stated the corporate’s long-term plan was to determine a mannequin that could possibly be replicated in different African nations from 2030.
He stated the enlargement would observe the profitable institution of the Mauritius operation, the acquisition of reference purchasers, the certification of personnel and the testing of operational procedures.
The subsequent part would contain regional development and extra providers led collectively by BCE and BCA.
However, he stated the speedy precedence remained establishing the Mauritius hub and demonstrating the viability of the enterprise mannequin.
Gouiaa stated the message to African producers, broadcasters and report labels visiting the corporate’s stand at CANEX was that manufacturing and technical providers they at present outsourced overseas would quickly be accessible on the continent to the identical requirements.
He stated the providers could be delivered by African groups educated at BCE in Luxembourg and working the identical programs that will be put in in Mauritius.
He added that the mission would offer a setting the place media firms may produce content material, prepare personnel, meet companions and conduct enterprise.
For worldwide media teams, he stated BCA was providing the infrastructure, operational ensures and technical partnership wanted to maneuver their Africa-facing operations nearer to the markets they serve.
Najib Gouiaa is the initiator and Chief Executive Officer of Broadcasting Center Africa and MediaCity Mauritius. He has three a long time of expertise in worldwide information and manufacturing, together with 20 years in worldwide information and an extra 10 years engaged on media initiatives within the Middle East and Africa. He beforehand labored as a reporter and producer for worldwide companies and channels throughout Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, served as head of reports at an Africa-focused channel and consulted on media and inventive initiatives within the Gulf.
