FG set to restructure N3Bn Nollywood grant for sustainability
Federal Government through the Ministry of Finance has disclosed that the N3billion grant for the Nigerian Film industry known as Nollywood is being restructured to make it serve the purpose for which it was created.
The ministry said in a statement that a talk shop to work out the strategy is scheduled for July 1, which will involve key stakeholders in the industry including the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, the leadership of Nollywood, the Actors Guild, Film and Videos Censors Board, The Nigerian Film Corporation and the Nigerian Copyright Commission.
Kemi Adeosun, Finance minister, who is convening the workshop explained that ideas generated during the workshop would form the basis for reinvigorating the Project ACT Nollywood and ensuring its sustainability.
Daily Times gathered that to date, the Project ACT Nollywood has implemented specialist training programmes in Nigeria and abroad in which 247 practitioners have been trained to develop their technical and professional capacities in the entertainment industry.
Likewise, 113 film projects, employing 2,436 people, have been co-financed through grants from the fund at a cost of N799 million, while the Innovative Film Distribution Programme has been designed to support viable solutions in film distribution.
The Innovative Film Distribution Scheme is also aimed at checking piracy which the World Bank estimates that for each copy of a Nigerian film sold, nine pirated copies are sold.
The National Bureau for Statistics (NBS), indicated that the Nigerian Film industry contributed 1.4 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2013 and 2014, and employing an estimated 250,000 people directly.
