The Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy is working on a framework for financing the development of Nigeria’s creative economy, which is targeted at creating 20 million jobs by 2027.
The minister, Hannatu Musa Musawa, made this known at an interactive session with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) in Abuja yesterday.
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Musawa declared the ministry’s readiness to work with the NESG on fund generation and capacity building to contribute N100 billion to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2030.
“With the support of NESG, the private sector, and the right funding mechanism, I think we can do so much to help Nigeria out of the doldrums. The Federal Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy is the happy place of Nigeria, no matter what. This is the sector that Nigerians want to hear about; the art, the films, the music, it is an expression of who we are.
“This is something that we really want to tap into, especially now that the whole world is interested in the Nigerian content. With this, we can reposition Nigeria, so we came up with this brilliant initiative, Destination 2030 which is poised to change the narrative of Nigeria.
“The government will work towards producing a conducive environment that encourages growth and private investment to ensure that Nigeria’s cultural influence transcends borders as a brand, and unites Nigerians across all initiatives.
“We need to prove to the administration that the ecosystem can really bring value back. So it is not just about giving to the creatives by investing in them, but by also proving that we can get back the value, all the way down to the grassroots. So, funding for our programmes is very key and I would love to share a number of these initiatives and programmes with you to see where we can pull the funds from,” Musawa stated.
Earlier, NESG, led by its facilitator on tourism, hospitality, entertainment, creative economy, and sports, Dr Ikenna Nwosu, said the group would provide technical assistance to the ministry to enable it to attract the funds.
Nwosu also expressed readiness to collaborate with the ministry to update the National Policy on the Creative Industry and to train the ministry’s staff on efficient data collection.
“We discovered that the ministry does not have a National Policy on Creative Economy. It does not have an updated National Policy on Culture. The one they have had since 1988. We don’t have a National Policy to incentivize the sector. There are other sectors that were incentivized by the government, like gas and telecommunications, to build initiatives and train the operators in the sector,” he said.
Nwosu pledged support to the ministry to enable it to carry out its mandate.
“The NESG decided that we must give the minister the full complement of our human, technical, and development partner expertise to succeed. There is no limit to what she asks us to do. We are at hand to do it on a 24-hour basis, and this is a commitment that we have made. We have demonstrated it and will continue to demonstrate it,” he said.