By Adedapo Adesanya
Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has commenced the implementation of the N22 billion creative industry development scheme as part of its boost the nation’s economy.
Government hopes to tap into the creative industry and possibly generate about $300 million in revenue for Nigeria and also unlock the creative talents of Nigerian youths.
Speaking at the Creative Nigeria Summit, the Governor of the apex bank, Mr Godwin Emefiele, disclosed that a 40-acre Creative Industry park would be developed around the National Theatre in Lagos with similar parks to be located in Kano, Port Harcourt or Enugu.
“Our goal through the establishment of these parks is to create an environment where startups and existing businesses can be incubated and rewarded for their creativity.
“In each of these parks, efforts will be focused on discovering the most innovative young entrepreneurs across the music, movie, fashion and IT industries,” he said.
The country’s chief banker further said that the initiative was designed to generate 800,000 jobs in the movie, music and fashion sectors for the country.
“Each park will be able to support skills acquisition for over 200,000 Nigerians. These individuals will be empowered with funds at a single-digit interest rate, state-of-the-art tools, high-level training and networks, that will enable them to turn their ideas into a reality,” Mr Emefiele said.
The CBN chief revealed that the initiative, over a 5-year period, would see additional 50 cinemas developed across the country, which he said would increase the contribution of the movie industry to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the current level of one percent to about 3 percent.
The music industry which has a lot of international recognition and host of budding talents would also expand through this initiative.
He said, “Our CIFI initiative will also enable the development of distribution outlets such as cinemas and music platforms, which will help improve the reach of the content developed by our young entrepreneurs.”
Mr Emefiele projected that over the next five years, young Nigerians would be able to capture a significant share of the $10.7 billion music industry.
