Nigerian Creatives Lose Time to Admin and Payment Delays

A report by NECLive titled "The State of Nigeria’s Creative Economy 2026" reveals that nearly one in five Nigerian creative professionals, specifically 19.6%, spend more than half of their weekly working time on non-creative administrative tasks. This situation restricts the time available for actual creative work.

The report surveyed 377 creative professionals across eight sectors, finding that 83% lose at least 10% of their productive time weekly to administrative duties, while 53.6% lose over a quarter of their working time. The report attributes these challenges to inadequate financial infrastructure and legal frameworks, which are more developed in mature creative markets.

It suggests that recovering even half of the time lost to administration could potentially double productive output without additional hiring or funding. Payment-related issues, such as chasing payments and delayed compensation, are also significant time-wasters.

Nigeria's creative economy employs approximately 4.2 million people but faces ongoing infrastructure and productivity challenges, including a substantial electricity access deficit affecting around 90 million people.