The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, says the Federal Government is committed to making entertainment industry in the country a business other than an amusement.
Muhammed stated this when a delegation from Kano State Chapter of Motion Picture Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN) visited him in his office on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said the government in conjunction with the British Council would organise a two-day capacity building for forty festival managers from across the 36 states to promote entertainment in the country.
According to him, government has been able to make some breakthroughs by getting the British Council and Tony Elumelu Foundation to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on capacity building.
“The training at the moment is limited to festival managers and it is only one of the many capacity building programmes that we are going to benefit from the MoU with the British Council.
“Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) is also not just desirous of training our people but also mentoring them and providing start up funds for them also.
“With the result of the MoU with TEF, we have also formed what we called Task Force on the Creative Economy, which its major objective is to transform the industry into an economy.
“We have also put together some times in April a workshop which is an international workshop of financing media and entertainment industry which again is a major handicap in the industry.
“That is why we have put these programmes in place because we are quite clear in our minds about the potentials of this industry and the obstacles,’’ he said.
The minister said the government was making effort towards making people see the entertainment industry as more of serious business by encouraging the practitioners through an enabling law.
He said the government was aware of the potential on the industry and its challenges, adding that it was working with the Nigerian Copyright Commission and security agencies to curb the menace of piracy.
According to him, the information about the exact size of the country’s creative industry is lacking in terms of how many movies are being produced, who are the makers and size of the market.
“One of the ways which we are going to help the industry is the Motion Picture Council of Nigeria (MOPPICON) Bill, which the government is trying to pass.
“The bill is going to really determine, who is a movie producer and his rights and obligations,’’ he said.
Muhammed called on members of MOPPAN to draw a plan on how to benefit from the opportunity presented to them by the Moroccan government.
He said the government was ready to partner with Morocco to develop its creative industry.
According to the minister, the government is willing to join the league of countries that are involved in proper feature films.
He, however, said that until infrastructure is in place it cannot be done.
“ We believe that with this invitation from Morocco to partner with Nigeria in area of co-production and as I understand, they are very eager to learn from us on local content.
“Even though they might be ahead of us in terms of technology and production, in terms of content, they have a lot to learn from Nigeria,’’ the minister said.
Earlier, the Leader of the delegation, Mr Mohammed Sani, told the minister that the purpose of their visit was to brief the minister on the outcome of their visit to Morocco.
Sani disclosed that the visit to the country was a fact-finding mission on the invitation by the government of Morocco to Kano State Chapter of MOPPAN.
He explained that Morocco saw Nigeria as the biggest market for media and entertainment industry in Africa, adding that the country was interested in having a co-production with Nigeria.
According to him, there are other aspects that Nigeria can still benefit from Morocco, especially in the area of capacity building, because they have a very mature creative industry due to their proximity to Europe.
He called on the Federal Government to look at engaging in full interaction with Morocco’s creative industry to harness its potentials. (NAN)
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