Melissa Kariuki, founder and chief executive of Whip Music, will join global leaders at the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Public Forum in Geneva on September 18, underscoring the rising recognition of Africa’s creative economy as a driver of trade and economic growth.
Kariuki, recently listed among the GRAMMYs’ “13 Women Shaping African Music” and Hotlist Africa’s “Top 30 Executives in the African Music Industry,” will feature in a session titled “Bridging Digital Divides Through Local Solutions.” She is expected to argue that Africa’s creators can compete globally if supported by enabling digital policies and stronger technology infrastructure.
“I am honoured to be invited by the WTO to share Africa’s perspective on digital trade and creativity as a driver of global growth,” Kariuki said ahead of the forum. “For too long, creativity has been seen as culture, but it is also one of Africa’s highest-potential commodities. With the right digital policies and local solutions, African creators can reach global markets, scale new industries, and shape the future of trade.”
Kariuki will speak alongside WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and senior executives from the UN, Amazon, PayPal, and IBM, including Pedro Manuel Moreno, Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD, and Katherine Wang, Manager of Trade and Supply Chain Policy at Amazon Web Services.
The WTO Public Forum is the organization’s largest policy platform, bringing together government leaders, corporate executives, academics, and civil society to debate the future of global trade. With 166 member states accounting for more than 98 per cent of global GDP and trade, WTO forums are considered one of the most influential stages for setting international trade agendas.
Africa’s creative economy is currently valued at $58.4 billion—about 4 per cent of the continent’s GDP—but represents less than 0.3 per cent of global creative exports. Analysts project that with stronger digital frameworks and trade support, African creative exports could grow to $200 billion by 2030, positioning creativity as one of the continent’s most valuable global commodities.
Whip Music, Kariuki’s company, is a music-tech platform helping African artists expand their reach across the US, UK, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, and other markets. Her appearance at the WTO forum signals growing international interest in Africa’s cultural industries, long viewed primarily through a cultural lens but now increasingly recognized as strategic to global trade.
