New Telegraph

Film industry contributed N83bn to GDP in 2018

Nigeria’s film industry contributed N83 billion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018 and remains the second largest employer of labour in Nigeria.

 

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who announced this in Abuja at the inauguration of the Steering Committee on the Commercialisation of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), said the sector deserves support, a statement issued by Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) spokesperson, Amina Tukur Othman, said. Mohammed said the country’s film industry had the potential to make Nigeria the entertainment capital of Africa. He added that the Federal Government was now set to reposition NFC for effective service delivery.

 

“What we are doing today is to simply reposition the NFC in a manner that will enable it to play the role statutorily assigned to it,” he said. The minister stressed the need to reposition the film industry and provide the necessary enablement for the industry to thrive, adding that as the driver of entertainment, the industry has also brought fame to the country.

 

He decried the lack of critical infrastructure to drive the film industry in Nigeria, saying for example, Nigeria has only 142 cinema houses compared to South Africa with 782; United States of America, 40,393; India, 11,209 and China with 50,976 cinema houses.

 

Mohammed appealed to state governments to invest in the provision of infrastructure for the entertainment industry, considering its huge potential to generate employment and contribute to the economy.

 

“It is important to appeal, especially to our state governments, to invest in infrastructure in the industry. I don’t think it will be too much for the state governments to ensure they build at least one cinema house in each local government area of their state. That will give us additional 774 cinema houses,” he said.

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