Let’s be honest, Lagos does not need an introduction. Music from the city travels across continents; its designers build brands with international reach, while its filmmakers tell stories that move beyond borders, and its entrepreneurs develop businesses in a market full of possibility and complexity.

However, what happens when the people connected to these industries, at home and across the diaspora, have more opportunities to meet?

That is the question behind Diaspora Week Lagos. And the answer is a two-week experience organised by Amplify Africa, running from October 27 to November 9, 2026. Diaspora Week Lagos is designed for diaspora professionals, creatives, investors and entrepreneurs; the programme offers a closer look at Lagos through its cultural institutions, businesses and creative communities, with an emphasis on building connections beyond conventional tourism. Rather than treating Lagos as a destination to visit, Diaspora Week invites participants to engage with the city as a place to learn, collaborate and explore opportunities.

The first week, running from October 27 to November 1, focuses on fashion, business and technology, bringing together some of the industries driving contemporary African culture and commerce. Participants will visit Nigerian brands including Andrea Iyamah, RENDOLL and Dabota Beauty, offering opportunities to engage with the people behind businesses building their identities and audiences in a competitive market. The programme also connects delegates with broader conversations about entrepreneurship, investment and the future of African business.

The Africa Prosperity Summit adds another dimension, convening investors, fund managers, policymakers and founders around the movement of capital and opportunities across African markets. A scheduled visit to the Dangote Refinery also offers a closer look at one of the continent’s major industrial projects.

Together, these experiences put the focus on more than the finished products or headline-making businesses. They create room to consider the people, decisions and infrastructure behind them, and where relationships between African and diaspora professionals might lead. Fashion and technology may appear to occupy different worlds, but both offer ways to understand how African ideas travel, how businesses find new markets and how cultural influence can translate into commercial opportunity. For designers and beauty entrepreneurs, international visibility can open doors to new customers and partnerships. For investors and founders, direct engagement with local businesses can provide a more grounded understanding of the markets they hope to enter. For members of the diaspora looking to build relationships with the continent, these encounters offer a starting point beyond headlines and assumptions.

Diaspora Week Lagos places these conversations within the context of Lagos itself, a city where commerce, creativity and social life frequently overlap. Its approach recognises that meaningful engagement with African markets requires more than an interest in their potential; it also requires an understanding of the people and contexts shaping them.

From November 4 to 9, the programme shifts towards film and art, exploring another side of the relationship between Africa and its global community.

The second week includes a visit to Rele Art Gallery and access to CANEX by Afreximbank, alongside opportunities to engage with the wider creative economy. ART X Lagos and the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) also take place during the broader period, offering additional entry points into the region’s contemporary art and film scenes. Separate tickets are required for these events. These cultural platforms matter because the relationship between Africa and its diaspora is not defined by investment alone. It is also shaped by the images, films,   artworks and ideas through which people understand their histories, identities and futures.

For artists, filmmakers and other creative professionals, these spaces can facilitate conversations about distribution, audiences, collaboration and the business of making work. For visitors, they offer a way to encounter African creativity through the people producing it and the institutions supporting its development.

At its core, Diaspora Week aims to bring different forms of engagement into the same conversation: culture and commerce, local knowledge and international networks, personal connections and professional opportunity. For Lagos, the gathering also creates an opportunity to present the city through the people building within it, rather than solely through its reputation abroad.

As Diaspora Week Lagos gets underway, the focus is on bringing those people closer together and creating room for new conversations about what can be built between Africa and its global community. The question is no longer simply what the diaspora can discover when it comes to Lagos. It is what can happen when the people connected to the city find more ways to build with one another.

Diaspora Week Lagos runs from October 27 to November 9, 2026. 

Find programme details and participation information at diasporaweek.africon.global.