The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the Federal Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the British Council and the Tony Elumelu Foundation to develop the creative industry.
Mohammed spoke on Friday night in Lagos at the maiden edition of the Rasheed Gbadamosi Eko Art Expo organised by the Lagos State Government.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Art Expo was in memory of Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi who died in November 2016 and also to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the state coming up in May.
“The MoU with the British Council will enable us improve capacity building, and between Feb.28 and March 6, we are training festival managers drawn from 40 major festivals across the country.
“We have also been able to succeed in getting a grant to do a scoping of the cultural industry.
“With this, we know exactly which industry is prevalent well,” Mohammed said.
He said with Tony Elumelu Foundation, the Federal Government would create, for the first time, a task force on creative economy.
“What we want is to transit from creative industry to creative economy and the task force is going to be co-chaired by somebody in the private sector.
“Today, most of our creative artistes, all they have is raw talents; they are very bad business people and they need to work with the private sector to create very workable business models, get new markets and new clientele,” the minister said.
According to him, this will mentor young artistes, and every year, 300 young artistes will be given grants to enable them perfect and grow in their arts.
“I am quite confident that Nigeria’s new oil is in the creative industry.
“This is one industry that does not only create jobs, but also reduces crime; it is an industry that prevents rural-urban migration.
“It is an industry that is pro-poor and it is pro the people,” Mohammed said.
The minister said that the government had in the last one year identified some major challenges confronting the creative industry.
“I found that we have been unable, due to systemic failure and lack of enforcement, to protect the intellectual property of our artistes,” he said.
Mohammed said that illegal reproduction of music and films had driven away investors from the industry and had also discouraged entrepreneurs and the creative artistes.
“We found out also that there is no data, no information upon which you can build and say I want to invest in this industry.
“Today, we do not even know the actual worth of the creative industry; we are just guessing.
“Thirdly, we found out that our curriculum is outdated; what is taught in our arts school today is no longer relevant to what is actually happening in the creative industry.
“There is nowhere in the world that you can develop the creative industry without subsidy from government.
“By subsidy, I mean you need to make it possible for these young artistes to have access to funds; we need mentoring,” Mohammed said.
He commended Gov.Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State for being passionate about the creative industry.
The minister encouraged other governors to emulate Ambode by providing infrastructure, incentives and encouragement as the governor had done.
“All the Federal Government can do is provide the enabling environment; it is the states in particular that have the assets; the tourist sites belong to states.
“Today we have tourist sites which are largely inaccessible and this is why we have set an advocacy to go from one governor to the other to plead with them to please invest in their tourism,” Mohammed said.
In his remarks, Ambode said that creativity was the most valuable asset in any progressive society.
“Progressive governments must embrace creativity; we are committed, and we must reward contributors of creative ideas with incentives,” Ambode said.
He said six art theatres would be opened across the state before the end of the year.
“This is why we are keenly interested in further development of our creative talents; in providing them with support and opportunities to be engaged.
“Our administration believes that no nation or state can achieve its full potential without adequate attention to matters of heritage and culture,” he said.
Ambode said that the exposition would immortalise the name of Gbadamosi, describing him as an illustrious Lagos man, who served the state till the very end.
He said that Gbadamosi served with his talent and passion for the arts, his time and his resources.
“There can be no better way to honour such a rare breed than to institute an annual arts fiesta in his memory,” the governor said.
Gbadamosi was a leading industrialist, art patron, former minister and co-chairman of the Lagos@50 committee.
TheNewsGuru.com recalls that the late Alhaji Rasheed Gbadamosi died on November 16, 2016 at the age of 72.