Lagos to Empower 200 Creatives as Gidi Creative Centre Berths

Continuing on its course of empowering young creatives in the state, the Lagos State government, through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture recently partnered with The Temple Company for the Launch of Gidi Creative Centre (GCC).

Targeted at 200 creatives, GCC adopts modules from the renowned Henley Business School and the University of Lagos to cover 10 areas of specialisation including filmmaking, creative writing, animation, audio engineering and music production, graphics design, multimedia design, film and screen production design, project management for creative professionals, fashion design, and media studies.

Present at the launch held at the Ogidi Studios, Lekki, Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf expressed confidence in the facility’s capacity to impart participants and create an impact on the creative industry in a fashion that mirrors its past collaborations with Ebonylife Academy and DelYork Creative Academy that has trained 3000 creatives.

“The end product that comes with this Partnership is to open up spaces for new ideas, identities, and perspectives to flourish in the creative sector and support the tourism vision of making Lagos State one of the top-five urban tourism destinations in Africa. To be the face of art in Africa for its multiple creative and innovative tourism products and experiences,” Akinbile-Yusuf said.

Through grants made available by the ministry to applicants to scale upon completion of the course, the new creative academy hopes to close the wide unemployment gap in the country.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of The Temple Company, Idris Olorunnimbe hammered the ripple effect the initiative will have in the coming years.

“The creative industry is the future of the world and Nigeria cannot be left behind. The most important element that has brought together The Temple Company, facilitators of Gidi Creative Centre, and Lagos State Government together,  is the common goal to equip the young people of Lagos to be the best they can be within the creative industry,” Olorunnimbe said.

The program is designed to run for 11 weeks. Registration is ongoing till September 8, 2022.