Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has implored Governors to encourage and support movie producers by providing incentives and creating the enabling environment for the Creative Industry to thrive in their respective states.
The Minister made the call in Abuja on Sunday Night at the premiere of the movie “My Name is Kadi.”
“One of the reasons I am here today is that we need to encourage and support the movie industry from whichever part of the country. It’s the same enabling environment that we are going to provide for all of them, but I think the state governments should encourage such film-makers also by giving them access to grants to help them because
this could be very expensive. The state governments will also help by
establishing cinema houses to show these films,” he said.
Mohammed said if properly harnessed through regulatory and
legislative framework, the film industry has a huge potential to
contribute significantly to the development of the economy.
“If you look at the GDP of California, which is largely dependent on
the Creative Industry, it’s about the sixth in the world. Go to Mumbai
in India and other cities, the Creative Industry is the bedrock of
their economy.
“The good news here is that the artists, the film-makers, the
musicians have gone far ahead and are today in a domineering position
globally,” he said.
The Minister said the government is working with some development
partners to provide data and statistics that will encourage the
private sector to key into the Creative Industry by investing and
making profit.
He however observed that one of the challenges faced by the movie
industry in Nigeria is that it’s largely unstructured, hence the
government is creating a self-regulatory mechanism through the
establishment of the Motion Picture Council of Nigeria (MOPICON) to
organise and properly structure the industry.
Mohammed decried the proliferation of guilds in the Creative
Industry and said such amorphous structure will not augur well for the
industry.
On the issue of piracy, he said his ministry and that of Justice are
partnering to curb piracy, noting that the punishment for piracy needs
to be stringent enough to discourage the unwholesome practice.
“We must protect the intellectual property of our artists. We have
laws already in place but there are some people who are of the view
that the punishment is not stringent enough,” the Minister noted.
He also harped on the need to discourage Nigerians from patronizing
pirated products through advocacy to create awareness on the dangers
of piracy to the nation’s economy.
