During the Nigerian film industry stakeholder’s workshop for restructuring Project ACT Nollywood in Abuja on July 1, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun said the indigenous film industry is a major contributor to Nigeria’s economy.
Project ACT Nollywood is a N3 billion grant programme set up by the Federal Government to address challenges impeding the growth of the Nigerian movie industry.
The workshop was to examine outstanding areas of the programme that was yet to be implemented; and review them to ensure that they were still appropriate for the industry.
Mrs. Adeosun gave two important summations about Nollywood.
1. The problem of the industry was not in the quality of movies produced but in the structure of the industry because most of those who create the value do not actually get the value in terms of returns due to piracy.
2. To improve distribution to ensure that the investments actually got the expected return, there was need to evaluate the entire value chain from the tax system to the enforcement system to ensure sustainability.
“Today, we will inaugurate a committee to review the programme, restructure if necessary and come up with implementation plan,” she said.
According to her, the plan would establish measurable and demonstrable deliverables that would ensure maximum value for the industry’s stakeholders and Nigerians generally.
According to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, who gave an update on Project ACT Nollywood, it was being implemented under three grand schemes.
– Capacity building fund
– Film production fund
– Innovative distribution fund.
He said the capacity building fund got an allocation of N300 million and was at 80 per cent completion.
The film production fund with an allocation of N800 million was also being concluded. The innovative distribution fund which got a N1.9 billion was the main crux of the workshop.
He stated that for the first component capacity building funds, 247 practitioners had been sponsored to attend specialist training.
“For the film production funds, we have so far co-financed 113 film projects through grants and awards.
“So far, the Project ACT Nollywood has implemented specialist training programmes in Nigeria and abroad in which 247 practitioners have been trained.
“The training is to improve their technical and professional capacities in the entertainment industry thereby employing 2,436 people,” he said.
He also said that for the innovation distribution fund, 383 completed applications were received out of which 348 were prequalified applications, while 150 of them have been interviewed.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who was represented by Grace Gebe, at the workshop, said that without proper distribution channels, piracy would continue to thrive in the country.
“It is our hope that very soon the N1.9 billion that is meant for the distribution fund will be given to the beneficiaries that had been interviewed and selected.
He said piracy thrives in the country because there was no genuine product in the market, thus people buy whatever that is available on the streets.
He, however, expressed satisfaction that the capacity building and the film distribution components of the programme had been successfully completed.
(NAN)
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