The Federal Government in a bid to reposition the entertainment
industry has inaugurated a committee to review and restructure the N3bn
project Nollywood grant.
The fund was set up to solve the main challenges impeding the growth of the Nigerian movie industry.
So
far, the federal government through the project has implemented
specialist training programmes in Nigeria and abroad in which 247
practitioners have been trained to improve their technical and
professional capacities in the entertainment industry.
Also, a
total of 113 film projects, employing 2,436 people, have been
co-financed through grants from the fund at the cost of N799m, while an
Innovative Film Distribution Programme has been designed to support
viable solutions in film distribution and the prevention of privacy.
The
Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, while inaugurating the committee
on Friday in Abuja during a meeting convened to brainstorm on how to
address the challenges of the sector said time had come for investors in
the sector to start getting returns on their investment.
She
said the desire to reposition and restructure the fund was borne out of
the need to stimulate investments in the entertainment industry owing to
its job creation potentials.
She said, “This grant program was
conceived to support the industry and its a reflection of the importance
of the entertainment industry on the Nigerian economy.
“What we
ve come here to do is to look at the outstanding parts of the program as
yet unimplemented, to review them to ensure that they are still
appropriate where the industry is today and where our objectives lie for
the industry.
“We want to ensure sustainability. We don’t want
to give out money to Nollywood. N3bn is not enough if we are going to
give out money. What we need to do is to find a sustainable way to
support Nollywood.
“We will be inaugurating a committee to review
the program, restructure it if necessary and to come up with an
implementation plan with measurable and demonstrable deliverables and
outcomes so that we ensure that we get maximum value for the industry
and for the Nigerian people.”
The minister challenged operators
in the sector to be more firm in tackling the issue of piracy adding
that most of the people who had worked hard to come up with creative
movie don’t get to benefit from their investments owing to piracy.
She added, “We need to improve distribution to ensure that the investments to make a film actually get the desired return.
“What
do we do about piracy. How can we make this fund to make sure that we
cut down the opportunities for those who simply sit back and wait for
others to invest and then cream off the profit.”
Present at the
workshop are representatives of the key stakeholders in the Nigerian
Film industry, such as the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture,
the leadership of Nollywood, the Actors Guild, Film and Videos Censors
Board, the Nigerian Film Corporation and the Nigerian Copyright
Commission.