Communiqué 106: The Nigerian National Theatre’s second act

The renovation of the National Theatre is just one part of a larger plan to revitalise Nigeria’s creative economy.

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1. An orchestra for Afrobeats

On the evening of December 26, 2025, guests began arriving at the National Theatre, stepping out in tuxedos and floor-length gowns, their silhouettes sharp against the glow of the theatre’s restored façade. The mood was deliberate. This was not your typical Detty December concert. It was a black-tie event.

In a country where major concerts are often delayed for hours and “Nigerian time” has become both a joke and an excuse, the precision of the night felt intentional. By the scheduled hour, the lights began to dim. The band was ready. The production cues rolled seamlessly, and then award-winning musician and founder of YBNL, one of Nigeria’s foremost music labels, Olamide, walked onstage. YBNL is famous for incubating talent, including Pheelz, Young John and Lil Kesh. A decade earlier, he had helped introduce a young Adekunle Gold to the national consciousness through his record label. This time, though, he only had to introduce Adekunle Gold to the audience of 5,000 seated before him, and then the show began.

What followed was a three-hour orchestral masterpiece, proof that Afrobeats, often associated with high-energy festivals, could be interpreted with the same discipline and theatricality as a classical production. In the days that followed, many described the concert as one of the best produced in Nigeria in this era of Afrobeats.

But the night was bigger than the music. The scale of it, the technical precision, the acoustics, all pointed back to the venue itself: the National Theatre. For decades, the country’s biggest musical moments happened in temporary spaces: converted halls, open grounds, hotel ballrooms, pop-up arenas, while the National Theatre sat unused and neglected. Now, thanks to a $100 million intervention by the government and the country’s Bankers’ Committee, there was once again a permanent stage for the cultural activities, and this was just the first part of the plan.

2. A $100m comeback plan

The National Theatre was commissioned in the mid-1970s as Nigeria prepared to host FESTAC ’77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. Designed in the shape of a military hat, it was meant to signal confidence. Nigeria had oil money, continental influence, and cultural ambition. The theatre, with its 5,000-seat main bowl, exhibition halls and rehearsal spaces, was built to match that moment.

For a while, it did. It staged major performances, state events and international festivals. It was where culture met power. But as oil revenues fluctuated and public maintenance culture weakened, the building began to deteriorate. By the 1990s and early 2000s, broken seats, leaking roofs and outdated equipment had become part of the story. The monument remained imposing from the outside, but had slowly fallen apart inside.

There were attempts to reverse the decline. In 2001, the Federal Government announced plans to concession and rehabilitate the complex, but the effort stalled amid bureaucratic delays and funding constraints. In 2007, another renovation was proposed, in partnership with private entities. This was met with stiff opposition from members of the creative industry. “The implication for the arts is that we will no longer have a home we can call our own. No country sells its cultural heritage if we make the mistake of concessioning it to businessmen. Then we are not going to have a venue for our arts and cultural heritage to be celebrated.” Ahmed Yerima, then the theatre’s general manager, said at the time.

So the theatre lingered in an in-between state: too important to demolish, too expensive to fully restore, and too symbolic to ignore. By the late 2010s, it had become less a functioning cultural engine and more a reminder of good days long gone. That is, until 2020.

In 2018, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), working with the Bankers’ Committee, a coalition of chief executives of Nigeria’s commercial banks that works alongside the CBN to coordinate major industry-wide interventions, began to take a more structured interest in Nigeria’s creative economy.

That same year, the CBN launched the Creative Industry Financing Initiative, offering loans to entrepreneurs in music, film, fashion and information technology. But policymakers soon realised that financing alone would not solve the industry’s problems. Talent had grown. Global demand had grown. Infrastructure had not.

In 2020, the CBN proposed a bigger plan to build dedicated creative hubs across those four verticals on the large expanse of land surrounding the National Theatre. The Federal Government agreed, with one important condition: that they first renovate the National Theatre. “The former Minister for Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said you cannot build new hubs around a dilapidated building. First, revive the National Theatre building and then new hubs can come up so they are complementary,” Professor Sunday Ododo, the former General Manager of the National Theatre, told Communiqué. The bankers agreed, and renovation work began.

Initial estimates put the rehabilitation cost at ₦2.8 billion. But as structural issues became clearer and the scope expanded, the figure rose significantly. By completion, the intervention had ballooned to roughly $100 million.

The renovation was extensive. The main bowl was fully refurbished, with new seats, modern stage technology and upgraded acoustics and lighting systems. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems were replaced. The roof was repaired. Air-conditioning systems were modernised. Digital production capabilities were installed. Safety systems were upgraded to meet international standards. What had once felt like a relic was rebuilt into a contemporary performance venue.

But the restoration is only the first phase of the project. The next phase will see the development of creative hubs across film, music, fashion and technology within the theatre complex.

3. When the applause fades

Phase two is where the project becomes sustainable. Modern arenas of the National Theatre’s size are not built as isolated monuments. Around the world, they are designed as anchors for larger districts. The arena pulls people in, but the surrounding ecosystem of hotels, restaurants, retail, offices, rehearsal spaces and studios keeps the area active every day. That daily activity generates revenue, improves security, justifies infrastructure investment and, most importantly, creates a community with a stake in the venue’s success.

The old National Theatre did not have this advantage; it stood alone. When events slowed, the complex had no alternative economic engine. There were no complementary businesses feeding off its traffic. Maintenance depended largely on government budgets. When those budgets tightened, repairs were postponed. Small faults became larger ones. Deterioration was inevitable.

The proposed creative hubs are meant to solve that structural weakness. Instead of a building that wakes up only for concerts, the complex would host film production facilities, music studios, fashion incubation centres, and technology spaces. That means people working there daily. It means training programmes, small businesses and creative start-ups.

If Phase One restored the theatre, Phase Two is designed to build the ecosystem around it, the kind that keeps the lights on even when there are no events. This model has found some success elsewhere in Africa. In Kigali, the Zaria Court development, providing hospitality and entertainment facilities, was opened in 2025 beside the BK Arena.

The reopening concert proved that the National Theatre can once again host ambition. But the deeper test lies ahead. If the creative hubs materialise as planned, it could become a production base, a training ground, and a commercial engine for industries that already command global attention. Nigerian music fills arenas abroad. Nollywood travels across continents. Fashion and digital creators shape culture far beyond the country’s borders. What they have often lacked is a structured infrastructure at home. The National Theatre’s second act, then, will answer the question of whether Nigeria can convert cultural momentum into durable economic value.

On December 26 2025, the orchestra played, and the lights worked. That was Phase One. Phase Two will determine whether the engine continues to run long after the applause fades.

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