Bida, a city in Nigeria's Niger State, was designated as a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art in 2021. This recognition highlights Bida's rich tradition in craftsmanship, particularly its renowned brass and beadwork, weaving, and other artisanal crafts. As a UNESCO Creative City, Bida is recognized for its vibrant cultural heritage and its efforts to sustain and promote traditional craftsmanship. The designation supports the city's development in areas such as cultural tourism, artisan training, and the preservation of local craft traditions, fostering a sustainable creative economy and enhancing its cultural profile on the global stage.

Located in the middle belt of Nigeria, Bida has been renowned as a city of quality craft manufacture since the 11th century. Today the local creative industry includes the art of glass production, metallurgy, wood carving as well as fabric and raffia weaving. Bida’s artisans still make their handmade products using traditional furnaces and locally made hand tools, as well as traditional methods that date back millennia. Bida’s crafts and folk-art industry provides direct economic benefits to the city’s creative communities, through the creation of employment opportunities, attracting investments from both local and international stakeholders, generating revenues, and stimulating the local economy through tourism and trade. Furthermore, the value chain of craft and folk art provides opportunities for sustainable development. The city’s urban vision is to make Bida a Creative City that maintains traditions. It is committed to preserving heritage arts, developing innovations in the field of crafts and folk-art entrepreneurship, whilst providing support that helps sustain the contributions of creativity and the cultural sector for the development of the city.

As a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, the following steps will be important:

 Contributing to the creative workforce;

 Providing technical cooperation with sector professionals and UCCN member cities;

 Mobilizing and raising awareness of the people with regards to cultural input;

 Creating opportunities for further exploration in creative industries with advice from experts;

 Providing information on city town planning with a view to promoting sustainable development; and

 Giving support to traditional industries and entrepreneurial start-ups.