Stakeholders Mull National Film Devt Fund

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

Stakeholders in the film and creative industry are considering the establishment of a national film development fund to act as a catalyst for the development of the sector.

When established, the fund will form the basis for government to fund and develop the creative sector of the economy, which has the potential of contributing up to 10 per cent to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The necessity of such a fund was highlighted at the quartet meeting between the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

The meeting was hosted by the NFC Managing Director, Dr. Chidia Maduekwe, in Abuja.
The meeting had a two-pronged objective. First was to revive the quartet meeting and ensure that stakeholders who pulled out in the past are again brought together on the same table, while the second objective was to initiate an effective programme of action that can take the film industry to a desired level with quality and quantity converging.

A statement by the Press Secretary, NFC, Mrs. Juliet Archibong said Chidia stated that he felt obliged to revive the quartet meeting, adding that was an important platform to help the film industry.

According to him, working in synergy as critical industry operators, the importance of the quartet cannot be overemphasised “if we are to deliver on the government agenda for urgent economic diversification for the country.”
His words: “as heads and representatives of government parastatals our actions and conduct should be aligned with the core objectives of the current administration which is to create jobs and shore up the economy.”

He noted that the ultimate goal of every organisation was to maximally fulfil their mandates. “This desire could be better achieved when we work in synergy. There are ingredients in each of these sister agencies which when effectively harnessed, judiciously combined and beautifully packaged will lead to the manifestation of greater success,” Chidia added.

The quartet agreed to come up with an agenda in line with each agency’s specific mandate. It was agreed that the whole idea was to stimulate thought and come up with a working paper that will be beneficial to the film industry and expose practitioners to adequate professionalism.

The stakeholders noted that current administration’s interest in the movie industry should be seen as a blessing which the industry stakeholders should leverage upon and secure the opportunity as presented.

Other issues which the quartet exhaustively deliberated on and collectively agreed to pursue vigorously were those bordering on, the fight against piracy and intellectual property theft, effective distribution and marketing framework, digitisation and content development.

Also, issues bordering on training and capacity building, professionalism, ethics and restructuring derivable from the industry regulatory laws were equally not left out.