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By Henry Akubuiro
Can anything good come out of Nazareth? History tells us: something good can come out from anywhere. Located behind Orile, Iganmu,Ijora Badia isn’t your typical highbrow Lagos residential area, but something big is happening at a nondescript location in this area: a brand new animation factory and an art centre.
Tucked side by side a flattened refuse dump, you must pass through a maze of ramshackle, closely built buildings with raw sewage wafting from stagnant gutters a few centimetres above the ground. But the sight of enthusiastic schoolchildren painting, undisturbed, under a roof made of pet bottles and sitting in front of computers a little later spoke volumes of generation-next’s heroes emerging from a Nigerian slum, courtesy of a Slum Art and Animation Hub.
Built from recycled PET bottles, Africa’s first tier-3 AI animation factory was recently launched at Ijora Badia, Lagos. Organisers said it was a 90-day live stress test in Ijora, powered by AI and designed to endure. It marked the beginning of a new chapter in global storytelling in Ijora Badia.
On February 26, 2026, Adetunwase Adenle, founder of Slum Art and Animation Hub, officially opened the Animation Studio and AI Factory in a remote location in Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos. The three-month live stress test has been designed to demonstrate, refine, and scale what has been envisaged to become the world’s first fully automated AI Television (AI TV) platform.
Different from a ceremonial unveiling marked by razzmatazz, Adenle told newsmen at the event that the studio doors would remain open to the public, from investors, technologists, educators, creators, policymakers, and media, to experience, firsthand, how AI-powered storytelling is built from concept to broadcast.
The amazing thing is that it was built from waste. “The facility is the first animation studio globally constructed using recycled PET bottles, transforming plastic waste into structural innovation and climate-conscious infrastructure,” said Adenle, who added, “By embedding circular economy principles into a high-performance AI production environment, the project proves that sustainability and advanced technology can grow together — not in opposition.”
From the foregoing, Ijora Badia is no longer just a backwater Lagos community. The recent innovation might have made it a global node for AI-powered entertainment production. This opening marks the beginning of a structured 3-month stress test designed to validate infrastructure durability and energy sustainability.
Adenle also said it would test real-time AI animation generation pipelines, measure production scalability under live conditions, refine collaborative AI storytelling workflows, and prove economic sustainability beyond launch momentum.
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Besides, visitors, he said, would witness and test, real-time AI animation pipelines, proprietary large language model (LLM) story development processes, AI-assisted character design and world-building, automated editing and voice synthesis workflows, full AI TV production chains, from prompt to broadcast
“The objective is clear: Build a model that survives pressure, survives scale, and survives time,” said Adenle. He believed that, as global leaders, such as The Walt Disney Company, “explore AI-driven narrative ecosystems, and companies, like OpenAI, advance foundational large language models reshaping creative industries, Nigeria is building sovereign infrastructure to ensure African participation extends beyond talent supply — to platform ownership.”
Daily Sun gathered that the flagship production, The Nigeria Story, aimed to unite up to one million contributors in what was projected to become the largest collaborative animation project in history — “a Guinness World Record attempt anchored in mass participation and digital inclusion.”
Through Slum Art and Animation Hub, over 10,000 children across Lagos have already been trained in AI-assisted storytelling and animation during the pilot phase — validating youth adoption, operational feasibility, and training scalability. The AI Factory is meant to transition that educational ecosystem into a monetisable industrial production engine positioned for global distribution.
Also, one million pre-ready AI storytellers are being mobilised for the next phase, according to Adenle, who was grateful to World Connect for the funding that enabled the physical construction of the AI Animation Factory. “World Connect’s investment demonstrates belief in a scalable model,” he echoed.
He was also indebted to First City Monument Bank (FCMB), which had been providing counterpart funding support since 2019. It has also positioned the Ijora Badia initiative as a Flagship 2026 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Project.
According to Omoniyi Iyanda, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at FCMB, “This initiative reflects our commitment to inclusive innovation, environmental responsibility, and long-term economic empowerment. By supporting AI infrastructure in underserved communities, we are investing in sustainable impact with global relevance.”
FCMB’s partnership signals a shift from charity-driven CSR to capability-driven nation building — accelerating AI literacy among Nigerians in 2026 and beyond.
Adenle informed that “this 90-day stress test is both a celebration and a proof of capacity. The factory has thrown its door open for students. engineers, filmmakers, investors. policymakers and the media. Also, “the public is invited to visit, challenge, observe, and experience how Africa’s first AI Animation Factory operates — and how AI TV content is built in real time,” said Adenle, who described the moment “as a transition from vision to validation.”
Adding, he said, “We are not asking the world to believe us. We are inviting the world to test us.” The stress test runs for 90 days beginning February 26, 2026. “The future of entertainment will be AI-powered. Ijora Badia is building the engine,” he declared.
