In a stakeholders meeting between the Nollywood and representatives of the Federal Government, distribution has been identified as the area that will gulp the most part of the N3billion largesse made available by President Goodluck Jonathan to the industry.
Convening at a town hall meeting which held recently on Saturday April 27, 2013 at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, the presidential committee which comprised of the Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Tourism, Edem Duke, along with professionals from the finance, judiciary and education sectors agreed to liase with the various guilds in the industry on how best to invest this grant.
Lack of proper distribution network, scripting and poor funding were identified as the major factors militating against the growth of Nollywood.
It was however agreed that inadequate distribution network creates room for pirates to feast on the sweat of the film makers and so, a consensus among participants at the meeting was reached on the need to develop a strong distribution system and strengthening of expertise to deepen professionalism and expertise in the industry as key areas of focus in the usage of the fund.
Speaking to reporters after the closed door meeting, Okonjo-Iweala emphasized government’s new resolved efforts to support Nollywood in every way that it can. She said, the idea is to encourage the sustained growth of the industry and help them deal with capacity building, quality and to encourage them in general to up the game in the industry
‘We agreed that this money will go to support certain things. First, getting distribution right. Second, for capacity building in the industry. Third, encouraging creativity through reviewing and having a competition for scripts and production’, the Minister said.
In a telephone conversation, President of the Association of Movie Producers, Zik Zulu Okafor who was present at the meeting told NET reporters that, ‘Tackling the distribution network problem will definitely act as a chain reaction to solving several other problems in the industry’.
‘Piracy thrives under a poor distribution system and it is the same problem of piracy that we have been crying about for a long time. Creating and adopting a proper network system will go a long way in solving the issues’, said Ejike Asiegbu, a former President of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria.
It is the belief of stakeholders that with a right distribution framework, enforced by government policies, the creative energy of the film industry would be unleashed.
The town hall event was the latest in a series of consultations by the government with stakeholders in the industry to get their input and ideas on the best ways to deploy the funds to maximise benefits for the industry.
At a dinner held on March 2, 2013 in Lagos in honour of the 20years anniversary of Nollywood, the President, Goodluck Jonathan had made a surprise promised of a N3billion intervention grant to the movie industry in what he had commissioned as ‘Project Nollywood’. Prior to this $3billion (N32 billion) for Nollywood, a previous intervention fund of about $200million for the creative industry announced by the President had been plagued by complaints of inaccessibility.
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