_The Creative Wealth of Nations_ subscribe to indigenous platforms under the right circumstances? What potential does this help address to the challenge of youth employment? What business rationale do emerging media startups themselves follow?

Femi Longe “co-founder of the Lagos-based Co-Creation Hub which seeks to harness technology to tackle social problems,” notes: many investors, social entrepreneurs and nonprofits in developing countries tend to focus on designing businesses or initiatives that primarily attract funding from investors — these happen to be mostly foreigners. By relying on such sources they fail to “make money from customers” or build models that can be sustained by customers.<sup>234</sup> These observations are critical. Nonetheless, while the WBG cannot streamline all these complexities, it could do the following:

# _The World Development Report 2016_

The World Development Report 2016 (WDR16) on _The Internet and Development_ will analyze “what factors have allowed some governments, firms and households to benefit from the Internet, and identify the barriers that limit gains elsewhere.”<sup>235</sup>

- Among the areas the WDR16 could address is how media startups from the developing world perform in the global entertainment industry, and how they can effectively contribute to such areas as job creation, youth employment, and rural development.

# _IFC_

IFC operates “principally in competitive, private sector markets,” and “it is recognized for its ability to provide a unique suite of financing and advisory services.”<sup>236</sup> As such,

- IFC could have a role to play in financing and advisory services for media startups in developing countries — it is important to consider these channels in crafting a comprehensive cultural policy in today’s digital era. But since such firms work with intangible items (of music and movies) many of them may not have the securities that IFC could require to fund them. This implies that finding innovative ways of financing such firms may be necessary. Meanwhile, for firms with guarantees (such as those likely to be in middle income countries), the question is to see how they could leverage IFC’s resources — some of them may not even know that such financing and advisory services exist.

_Augment Internet Connectivity Within and Between Countries_ Generally speaking, while progress is being made, Internet connectivity and broadband service are still limited in many developing countries, especially in rural areas. Yet e-services, as Paul Collier also notes, “now have the potential to deliver rapid economic growth.” For landlocked countries, this indeed provides more trade options because e-services make distance irrelevant.<sup>237</sup>

> 234 T.O., “Nigeria's Entrepreneurs: Angels in Lagos,” _Economist_ , October 28, 2012, accessed March 9,

> - 2013, http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2012/10/nigerias <u>entrepreneurs.</u>

> 235 Kaushik Basu, email message, March 10, 2014.

> 236 The World Bank Group. 2014. _The World Bank Group Strategy_ .

> 237 Paul Collier, _The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 60-61.

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