Letter
Letter From the Founder
I did not come to Africa’s creative industries as an observer.
I came from the inside as a media founder, cultural operator and strategist working across African and global systems.
For years, Africa inspired the world.
Its designers, artists, beauty rituals and visual languages shaped global culture yet economically, Africa remained invisible.
The problem was never creativity.
It was data.
No reliable figures.
No structured intelligence.
No frameworks translating influence into economic value.
Without data, Africa’s creative industries were treated as informal, underfunded and peripheral.
That gap became impossible to ignore.
BAICI was born from a simple conviction:
if Africa’s creative industries influence the world, they must be documented, quantified and taken seriously.
So I built what did not exist.
Not another media platform.
But an intelligence infrastructure producing rigorous data and strategic clarity.
BAICI exists to prove that Africa’s creative industries are real economic forces.
Our work is not neutral.
It is corrective.
We document so industries can exist.
We structure so value can circulate.
We provide intelligence so Africa is engaged with seriously — not symbolically.
Welcome to BAICI.
Frédérique Kragbé Leininger
Founder & CEO
BAICI — Business of African Industry & Creative Influence
Frédérique Leininger
Founder, CEO and Editor-in-ChiefThe Business of African Industry & Creative Influence
Frédérique Kragbé Leininger is the Founder and CEO of BAICI — Business of African Industry & Creative Influence.
She is a Franco-Ivorian media executive, strategist and ecosystem builder operating at the intersection of culture, data and global markets. CEO & publisher of ELLE Côte d’Ivoire and initiator of ELLE Afrique, she has spent over a decade structuring narratives, platforms and partnerships between Africa and international decision-makers.
Through BAICI, she leads the first pan-African intelligence initiative dedicated to documenting, quantifying and structuring Africa’s creative industries, with a focus on fashion, beauty, design and visual culture.
Her work bridges market intelligence, cultural insight and strategic advisory, serving global brands, institutions and investors seeking rigorous understanding of African markets.
Frédérique Kragbé Leininger is recognised for her ability to translate African creative influence into economic language and to build the missing infrastructure where culture, data and strategy meet.