Building Creative Infrastructure Across Africa
In this conversation, Alexandre Bonneau, founder of AFROTO, explains how audiovisual production can be structured across African markets, why local creators need stronger access to demand, and what it takes to build a service platform that works across borders.
Africa’s creative economy is often discussed through talent, culture and visibility. But for organizations operating across the continent, one operational problem remains: how do you reliably commission photography, videography and visual storytelling in multiple countries without rebuilding the process each time?
Alexandre Bonneau launched AFROTO in 2020 to address that gap. The platform positions itself as a structured bridge between organizations needing audiovisual services and local creators able to deliver them across African markets.
- Creative industries need operational infrastructure, not only talent.
- Pan-African execution depends on local creators, but also on coordination and trust.
- Standardization matters when clients operate across several African countries.
- Institutional demand can help professionalize fragmented creative markets.
- AFROTO’s model sits at the intersection of visibility, delivery and market access.
What problem were you trying to solve when you launched AFROTO?
We saw a gap between two realities. On one side, organizations working in Africa needed reliable photography, videography and visual content across different markets. On the other side, many local creators had talent, but they did not always have structured access to those clients.
AFROTO was launched in 2020 to make that connection easier. The idea was not only to produce content, but to create a more organized way for companies, institutions and partners to work with local audiovisual professionals across the continent.
AFROTO is positioned as a pan-African platform. What does that mean in practice?
In practice, it means clients can approach one platform for needs that may span several African countries, while the work itself is carried out with local creators who understand the context, the people and the environment.
That matters because audiovisual production is never only technical. It also depends on trust, responsiveness and the ability to work close to the field. A cross-border platform still needs local execution.
Why is structure so important in the creative economy?
Talent exists across the continent. The challenge is often structure: booking, coordination, quality control, delivery timelines and client confidence. When these pieces are weak, even strong talent can remain underused.
A platform model helps reduce that friction. It gives organizations a clearer entry point while making opportunities more accessible for creators who are already capable of delivering.
Public profiles have highlighted institutional clients as an important part of AFROTO’s revenue mix. Why is that significant?
Institutional clients, large companies and NGOs often operate with recurring needs, tighter expectations and more formal processes. That creates a different level of discipline for a platform like ours.
It also matters for the broader ecosystem. When these actors commission African creators through more structured systems, they contribute to the professionalization of the market, not just to isolated projects.
How do you think about scale when working across African markets?
Scale is not only about adding countries. It is about keeping quality, responsiveness and trust while expanding the network. A pan-African model only works if local execution remains strong.
That is why scale in creative services is different from scale in purely digital products. You need systems, but you also need people on the ground who can deliver with consistency.
What does AFROTO suggest about the future of Africa’s creative economy?
It suggests that parts of the creative economy are moving from informal networks toward more structured service models. That shift is important because it improves visibility, access and trust on both sides: for creators and for clients.
More broadly, it shows that creative industries in Africa can be built as real operating businesses, with process, delivery standards and cross-border relevance.
What have you learned from building AFROTO since 2020?
One lesson is that local knowledge remains central, even when the ambition is continental. Another is that demand and supply do not connect automatically. Building that bridge requires patience, credibility and operational discipline.
We are still learning, but the direction is clear: if African creators are easier to access, easier to trust and easier to deploy across markets, then more value can stay within the continent’s creative economy.