The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has announced that the Federal Government has approved a facility of about N7 billion to support the creative industry in content production, content distribution, the acquisition of production equipment, digital transmission equipment and other areas of need.
Making the disclosure during the at the Greeners Business-to-Business Annual National Economic Dialogue 2020 held in Abuja, Mrs. Ahmed, represented by her Special Adviser on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Dr. Armstrong Takang, said the fund was approved to creative group of 35 firms in content production, content distribution, production equipment, digital transmission equipment among others.
Expatiating further, the Minister said the Federal Government created the N-Power Creative programme to train and develop 5,000 young creative talents in order to continue to build capacities among Nigerian youths. The strategy, according to her, is to put the creative industry on the global radar as exporters of world-class services and content. To achieve this, the beneficiaries were trained and certified in Animation, Graphic Design, Post-production and Script Writing and they all received computing devices that enabled them to master their skills during and after the training, according to the Minister.
According to her, the major areas which Nigeria had comparative advantage in the creative economy were Music, Film, Information Technology Industries and Fashion.
The Minister also disclosed that in 2016, the film industry contributed N239 billion to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and that Nigeria’s music industry grew by 9 per cent in 2016 to reach a value of 39 million dollars.
Mrs. Ahmed noted that the music industry was set to grow by 13.4 per cent by 2021, with an estimated worth of about 73 million dollars and that the gaming industry in Nigeria was also growing.
She stated that: “The gaming industry is benefitting from a widening customer base, mostly the large and youthful population. UNICON values Nigeria’s video game industry at 150 million dollars.
“It also estimates mobile gaming to surpass 147 million dollars by 2020”.
Dr. Mustapha Popoola, the convener of the dialogue, in his remarks said this year programme was the fifth economic dialogue which aimed at mentoring people to develop their businesses.
The theme of the dialogue was “Positioning Nigeria’s Creative Industry as Growth Engine of Africa Continental Trade Agreement (AFCTA)”.
