Harry Kesiena: Leading Arts and Culture at British Council Nigeria and Building Bridges for the Creative Economy

By Tosin Clegg

Harry Kesiena’s journey in the creative sector began as a discovery born out of necessity. Growing up between Ile-Ife, Warri and Port Harcourt, Harry initially imagined a more conventional path. His family were doctors and lawyers, and for a while he considered medicine, then engineering. But while he was at university, he discovered fashion. In 2012, following the death of his father, he found himself in the textile market in Aba, trying to earn enough to support himself and his siblings.

What began as a means of survival became an education in the possibilities and limitations of Nigeria’s creative economy. In Aba, Harry saw talent everywhere: skilled makers, designers and entrepreneurs who could create remarkable things but often lacked access to the finance, markets, networks and structures needed to turn that talent into sustainable livelihoods. That experience would eventually shape the work he does today as Head of Arts and Culture at British Council Nigeria.

From making things to building systems

Harry spent years working as a fashion designer and teacher, making clothes for important occasions and passing what he knew on to other young creatives. Over time, his experience sharpened his diagnosis of the problem: talent is in abundance, access is not.

That realization moved him from maker to builder of systems around makers. At Design X Foundation, he mapped museums, art hubs and design studios across Nigeria, South Africa and the UK. At Export Community Enterprise, he grew an exporter community from zero to 200 members and secured a Zenith Bank partnership for international market access. He also worked on the DIVE Fashion Program, helping African entrepreneurs reach new markets in the US.

Alongside this, he built independently, applying the same instinct across the wider industry: Digital Loom researches traditional weaving communities and connects artisans and digital creators from Africa and the UK; Reroll Station addresses fashion waste at the point of production; Ploorg helps creatives become investable and protect their intellectual property. Through Film Lab Africa, he began connecting African and UK filmmakers – an initiative that started with his work at the British Council.

Graduate study at Rome Business School, Penn, Bocconi and the University of the Arts London gave this practitioner’s instinct a formal vocabulary. The common thread: creative potential becomes more valuable when the right systems exist around it.

The work at British Council

Harry brought that perspective to British Council Nigeria as Programme Manager for Arts and Culture, building relationships across film, music and fashion between creatives, funders, policymakers, cultural institutions and international networks.

His progression to Head of Arts, Creatives and Culture was an expansion of that work: no longer only how to deliver programmes, but how they could build a stronger, more connected creative economy.

Creative Economy Week Nigeria 2025 was one of the clearest expressions of that approach. What began in 2023 as a Lagos-based initiative had, by 2025, expanded across Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu, with London also part of the programme — 11 days, nearly 70 activities, under the theme Building Futures Through Creativity.

For Harry, a programme’s value lies less in the events it delivers than in what remains when it ends. “We’re not just supporting filmmakers or designers,” he says. “We’re backing them with research, skills, financing models, and policy dialogue so their work sits inside a complete, sustainable value chain.”

From programmes to an ecosystem

Across the creative sectors, Harry’s focus is on connecting creative talent to the commercial, institutional and international opportunities required to build sustainable careers.

In fashion, Creative DNA Nigeria supports the creativity and business of fashion; pairing designers with business partners who understand finance and commercialisation, helping them access markets in Nigeria and the UK. In music, Music Connects Africa helps musicians document their work, understand their rights and connect with commercial opportunities.

Film Lab Africa – the business of film programme that started when Harry joined the team – is now expanding, deepening its collaborations across Africa and Globally.

InsightsOut Africa uses research to examine the funding landscape, needs of creative hubs in Nigeria and identify where interventions can have the greatest impact.

For Harry, research, programmes and policy are part of the same process. A 2024 British Council report estimated Africa’s creative economy contributes more than $58 billion annually, while flagging significant gaps in financing and policy – data he sees as a guide for where intervention can help most.

That work has increasingly reached beyond Nigeria’s most established creative centres. In northern Nigeria, including Kano, Harry has worked to create opportunities for creatives outside the industry’s most visible networks – among them writer Idi Nasiru, selected as one of two global winners from more than 800 entries across 87 countries in a BBC competition, whose story is now being developed into a BBC production. For Harry, it reinforces that talent can emerge anywhere; the challenge is building pathways that let it be discovered.

Building what comes next

The next phase of Harry’s work centres on building greater continuity across these efforts, using British Council’s reach to create opportunities beyond individual programmes.

At the centre of that ambition is the UK–Nigeria Season of Culture 2028, a major cultural exchange bringing together musicians, designers, filmmakers, writers, researchers and artists from both countries. Its significance, for Harry, lies less in the scale of the event than in the relationships that emerge from it and continue beyond – consistent with the approach he has taken throughout his career: build local capacity, create international connections, and turn them into meaningful opportunities for creatives.

He describes himself simply as a pipe, someone who helps good things pass from one person to another – an understated description of a career defined by connection: creatives to funders, local talent to global networks, creative ambition to the structures that sustain it.

As Head of Arts and Culture, his focus is on strengthening the partnerships built through Creative Economy Week, working with the government on policy, expanding creative training within cultural institutions, and building stronger pathways to international markets. The platform has grown. The pipe is the same; transporting more, and further, than before.