Murray-Bruce Drums Support For Entertainment, Creative Sector

Senator representing Bayelsa East, Benedict Murray-Bruce, has  solicited for more support for the entertainment industry in the country.
Murray-Bruce, a founder of Silverbird Group, made the call on Wednesday night at The Dance Workshop(TDW) with the theme “ The Best of Both Worlds’’ held in Abuja and organsied by Imagneto Dance Company.
“We just need the Federal Government to support the entertainment industry and Nigeria will be the biggest in the world of entertainment.
“Right now we are the best in Africa and second in the world in the entertainment industry after America.
“ We have brilliant and intelligent dancers, actors/actresses, musicians, comedians and host of others in the country, so if the FG supports the industry we will be the world best.’’
Murray-Bruce also called for an enabling environment for artists to ply their trade effectively.
According to him, the sector now contributes three per cent of the country GDP, adding that if given the needed support; it can contribute up to 25 per cent.
He said that, giving enabling environment was not just fighting piracies, but to encourage banks to give five per cent of all loans to the practitioners in the sector.
Murray-Bruce said when government provides the enabling environment, the practitioners can then build infrastructure needed by them to carry out their performances.
He said, long term loans of two digit interest should be given to the industry and one would be able to build infrastructure
“It will be possible for one to build dance studios, dance houses and venues where we can do concert and shows.
Murray-Bruce noted that in Nigeria, there are very few venues for entertainment shows.
“ Only in Lagos and Abuja that you can find such venues to perform, whereas in the real sense it should be available in each local government area of the country.
“There are so many things the government can do to make these things possible.
Also at the workshop, TY Mix, a music producer, and a record label executive said he was at the workshop to share knowledge with the young ones.
“We have a lot of knowledge to share with the young ones. I’ve been active in the music industry for over ten years now and there’s a lot to share in terms of character quality.
“How to hunt your talent and how to make money from your talent and the business of the industry.
“We are here today to talk about dance being a serious business. It is basically about dance. You are all talented dancers, how do you make money from dance,’’ he asked.
According to him, sometimes there are lots of misconceptions about dance; people do not take dancers seriously.
“But as an entertainer generally how do you portray yourself so that people will begin to take you seriously. It is all about packaging.’’
He said the programme was an avenue for dancers to actually grow in their area of dance because people needed to know that whatever you do can earn you a living in the industry.
“There is need for diverse training of the Nigerian dancers if we really want them to succeed by looking for something new and add value to the dance as well.
“In as much as you create your own dance step, you have to look forward to learning something new and grow your dance.
“In Nigeria we actually focus more on school, they do not take dancers seriously unlike the developed countries because we are still in the developing state,’’ TY Mix said.