The Federal Government is stepping up efforts to grow the creative economy with a detailed $100b growth pitch to local and international investors.
THE Minister of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, has unveiled the Federal Government’s strategic plans to generate at least $100 billion and create over two million jobs from Nigeria’s creative economy.
Accompanied by heads of some culture parastatals, including the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Obi Asika, Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Biodun Ajiboye and Managing Director of the Nigerian Film Corporation, Ali Nuhu, the Minister shared the government’s bold vision with local and international investors on Wednesday, September 11.
At the Wheatbaker, Ikoyi, Lagos meeting, Musawa presented an 8-point plan she noted would benefit Nigeria if implemented faithfully.
The 8-point plan she unveiled included Nigeria Destination 2023, a national initiative designed to grow the arts, culture and creative economy under one united vision, skills development, fast-track policy frameworks and strategy governance and collaboration. The other four are innovative strategic partnerships, growth targets for GDP contribution & sectoral output, enabling business environments, and cultural heritage preservation and sustainability.
The Minister emphasised that Nigeria’s creative industry, encompassing music, visual media, visual arts and crafts, heritage and museums, culinary arts, fashion, publishing and video gaming sub-sectors, is currently contributing just $5 billion.
However, she also underlined its vast potential, which she believes can be harnessed to grow by 400% by 2027, positioning the sector for significant growth and delivering the vision for the industry.
Musawa said the Ministry has identified 14 pivotal initiatives to drive the sector’s growth and significantly boost government revenue by $10b – $20b to achieve its lofty goals. She grouped these initiatives under four unique pillars: Technology, Infrastructure and Funding, International Culture Promotion, and Intellectual Property monetisation.
Under the Technology pillar, the Minister said the Ministry intends to launch a digital content creation tool accessibility program to provide improved and discounted digital tools for Nigerian creatives. Others include the launch of the Nigeria content distribution initiative to increase the nationwide adoption of digital tools for content distribution, the launch of a study to estimate the size of the creative industry in Nigeria, including a framework to size the market going forward, and the expansion of internet accessibility in underserved regions in Nigeria to expand the reach of the other digital initiatives.
She said Infrastructure and Funding entails cataloguing existing infrastructure for the Arts, Culture and Creative Economy and its current state, developing the appropriate infrastructure needed for the industry and leveraging public-private partnerships to fund development, providing incentives to stakeholders in the creative economy to boost investment and adoption of strategic initiatives, and launching an innovative accelerator program to provide capital, and capacity building to creative companies.
Under International Culture Promotion, Musawa said the Ministry will establish a culture promotion office collaborating with Nigerian embassies abroad to promote Nigerian arts, culture, and creative economy. The Ministry will also leverage AFCTA to boost Nigerian creative output export regionally and globally.
For Intellectual Property Monetisation, she said the Ministry would seek to establish Globally standardised CMOs (Collection Management Organisations) for most of the sectors, launch a Copyright Oversight Initiative in partnership with the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) to enhance tracking, monitoring, and enforcement of copyright standards, ensuring CMOs’ adherence to CISAC standards. It will also develop and implement the intellectual property framework and operationalise Nigeria’s IP licencing framework.
Musawa’s vision for Nigeria’s Creative Economy is ambitious, with a potential growth of 400% by 2027. This vision positions the sector to leapfrog and deliver the set goals in the long term.
She revealed that the Ministry has already created several initiatives and entered strategic collaborations to realise its goals. These partnerships, she emphasised, are crucial in leveraging the expertise and resources of various stakeholders to drive the growth of Nigeria’s creative economy.
The Minister listed some of these initiatives to include, among others, the Creative Leap Acceleration Program, CultRise, an infrastructure development initiative and Origins, an advanced data capture and management initiative designed to collect, store, analyse, and share critical data related to Nigeria’s cultural and creative industries.
The Minister also provided a detailed list of the Ministry’s infrastructure project in the pipelines. These include the Digital & Immersive Art Centre, the Renewed Hope Creative City at the Wole Soyinka Centre, Arts Village in Abuja, setting up of Creative Hubs in Nigeria’s 36 states, the National Entertainment Centre, Abuja Creative City, and the National Gallery of Art, among others.
To aid in the realisation of the government’s job creation target in the creative industry, the Minister disclosed that the Ministry had partnered with BigWinPhilanthropy, a major international development partner, to deliver a transformative capacity-building and job creation strategy.
Some of the investors present at the forum were Managing Director/Chief Executive of 9mobile Nigeria, Obafemi Banigbe, Head of Tourism, Culture & Art, Sterling Bank, Abiola Adelana and Founder, Nike Art Gallery, Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye.
Director, Goethe-Institut Nigeria, Dr Nadine Siegert, Consul General, Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Michel L.H. Deelen, and Deputy Consul General, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Gerald Wolf also attended the roundtable.
READ ALSO: Five times Tinubu’s govt has promised to kickstart Port Harcourt refinery
