Lagos — For the umpteenth time, the Nigeria Government, under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan, has promised to boost the nations economy through entertainment. This reassurance was given by Minister of Finance and coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Tuesday at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 26 movie producers under the Presidential Intervention Fund for the Nigerian movie industry. The minister said the N215.5 million provided for the film-producing segment of the entertainment industry is to support it to improve on film production in the country. Before the 2011 general elections, President Jonathan, as part of his campaign strategies to woo entertainers, promised to invest a huge sum of money into the industry so as to aid entertainers financially. This is even as most entertainers said the government of Jonathan didnt fulfill that promise. Again, during a special dinner organized in celebration of Nollywoods 20 years of existence, the President donated N3 billion as an intervention fund for the industry. Not minding the political undertone, many elougised him for identifying with the industry. But the fund, in no small way, brought about rift between some of the practitioners. Different parallel groups sprang up just to achieve their agenda of sharing the Jonathans cake to entertainment industry. Till date, there are still lots of wrangling due to the intervention funds. According to the minister, President Goodluck Jonathan is very much aware of the contribution of entertainment industry to the economic development of the country and I think several states have also tried to attract the industry. From what I understand, issues of intellectual property, quality and so on, are paramount and that is why the President thought that he would put this initiative together to support the industry. He had always believed in the power of the creative industries to try and help transform the country. This is through the employment that the industry will create for our young people, particularly those that have left the university. She explained further that the initiative is to support the industry in addressing the challenges of intellectual property and quality in the industry, while also saying the industry has so far created no fewer than 200,000 direct and one million indirect jobs worth $250 million. Some stakeholders in the industry, however, said the ministers reassurance is another gimmick to lure entertainers to support Jonathans re-election bid.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 21:25:43 +0000
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