Entrepreneurial Opportunity Structures in Nigeria’s Creative Economy: A Cross-Zonal Comparative Study

This study empirically analyses the entrepreneurial opportunity structures available in Nigeria's creative economy across six geopolitical zones, examining how regional cultural assets, consumer market characteristics, institutional support, and digital access jointly shape the entrepreneurial opportunities accessible to creative economy participants in different parts of the country. Nigeria's creative economy, encompassing music, film, fashion, craft, visual arts, and digital creative services, is one of the country's most globally distinctive economic sectors, but opportunity structures for creative entrepreneurs are highly unevenly distributed geographically, with Lagos and Abuja concentrating a disproportionate share of the sector's formal commercial activity. The study employs a mixed-methods comparative design, conducting a survey of 300 creative economy entrepreneurs distributed across the six zones and analysing the relationship between opportunity structure variables and enterprise performance through multilevel regression. Zone-level contextual variables including digital infrastructure, cultural tourism revenue, creative cluster density, and event economy activity are constructed from secondary data. In-depth interviews with 30 creative entrepreneurs provide qualitative depth. Findings confirm significant between-zone variation in opportunity structure quality, with Lagos and South West zone showing the highest-quality opportunity environments. However, zone-specific cultural endowments create distinctive opportunity niches in each region, including Kano's leather and textile craft sector, Enugu's growing film production cluster, and Calabar's cultural festival economy. Recommendations include regional creative economy development plans that leverage zone-specific cultural assets. Keywords: creative economy, entrepreneurial opportunity, cross-zonal comparison, Nigeria, creative industries.