dEX Founder Daniel Ampofo to Represent Ghana at Cannes Lions 2026

For years, conversations about African creativity have often focused on potential.

Potential waiting to be discovered and invested in.

But perhaps the more interesting story is this: “What happens when the people building the future of African creativity are no longer waiting for permission?”

This June, Daniel Ampofo, founder of dEX Ghana, will join creative leaders from around the world at Cannes Lions 2026 through the Crescendo Creative Bridge initiative.

This invitation represents something much larger than attending one of the world’s most influential gatherings for creativity and advertising. It reflects years of work dedicated to building something he believes Africa’s creative ecosystem needs more of: Infrastructure.

While talent has never been scarce, opportunities for connection, knowledge-sharing, and institutional growth have often lagged.

That belief is what birthed dEX Ghana.

What started as a community initiative has steadily evolved into one of Ghana’s growing design institutions, bringing together designers, educators, students, founders, and industry leaders around a shared belief that design has the power to shape culture, business, and society.

Today, that vision stretches across initiatives including the dEX Design Conference, dEX Labs, dEXLingo, and the country’s first Design Census, all aimed at strengthening the foundations upon which African creativity can thrive.

That is what makes this moment particularly significant. Cannes Lions has always been more than an awards festival. It is where ideas, industries, and cultures intersect.

For Daniel, the opportunity offers a chance to learn from some of the world’s leading creative minds, build meaningful connections, and better understand how global creative ecosystems are structured.

But just as importantly, it presents an opportunity to bring Ghanaian and African perspectives into conversations shaping the future of creativity itself.

African creatives are no longer simply participating in global conversations but increasingly helping shape them.

For dEX Ghana, whose mission has always been rooted in building stronger connections within Africa’s design ecosystem and equipping designers with the tools, knowledge, and community they need to do work that’s rooted in culture, moments like these reinforce the belief – that African creativity has never lacked talent. It lacked infrastructure, and dEX Ghana is building that infrastructure.

Daniel carries with him to Cannes Lions 2026 not just his own story but also the aspirations of a growing creative community of Dexters committed to building a future where African design and creativity are not viewed as emerging voices but as essential ones.