By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A foremost Nollywood actress, Ms Rita Dominic, has commended Heritage Bank for supporting the creative industry in Nigeria.
She thanked the financial institution for specifically supporting one of her dream projects, the Rita Dominic Acting Challenge, which was used to discover fresh talents for the Nigerian movie industry.
Ms Dominic launched an acting challenge for aspiring actors to recreate a scene in a new film she produced titled La Femme Anjola.
In the contest, Jasmine Howson-Wright was the winner and received N1 million, while the first runner-up, Chioma Okafor went home with N300,000, with the second runner-up, Mr Josh Anowi, getting a consolation cash prize of N100,000.
During the presentation, the ace actress could not hide her joy and she thanked Heritage Bank Plc for believing in her dreams and for helping and recognising the need to support young talents in Nigeria.
“I have been eager to make my dream a reality, luckily Heritage Bank came on board to partner with us this year. I consider this as a fantastic opportunity to get my lifelong dream to have actors,” she said.
According to her, the acting challenge is an opportunity to help young aspiring actors to find their feet in the industry because of how difficult it can be in the industry.
She noted that there were enormous aspiring talents to harness; as it was difficult to nominate the winners amongst participants in the Rita Dominic Acting Challenge.
She advised the winners to remain unwavering, focus their eyes on their visions and goals if they desire to succeed in the entertainment industry.
On his part, the Divisional Head of Corporate Communications of the bank, Mr Fela Ibidapo, explained that as the institution’s name implies, Heritage Bank has continued to make efforts in supporting creativity, ideologies and talents like these, where arts are used as a tool to promote cultural awareness and to help younger Nigerians form a strong sense of national identity.
“As a bank, we look for creativity, ideas and talents to support. We are called Heritage Bank for reasons, which involves putting our money where our mouth is, is that art and entertainment space are platforms where we considered being an opportunity for us to leverage our supports.
“It is a privilege that we are here today to celebrate the movie and the success achieved thus far and to the winners,” he stated.
He assured that the bank would always be driven by cultural heritage in delivering distinctive financial services to create, preserve and transfer wealth.
According to him, the bank is proud of the entertainment industry and will continue to stand by operators in it by supporting them and watch them grow.
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