Nigeria’s creative industry has been described as the fastest growing sector of the economy with $ 53 Million and $ 51 Million accrued last year from film and music respectively.
The minister for information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed this said in terms of business opportunities, employment and earnings, the entertainment industry is an unexplored keg of potentialities.
The minister stated this during a working visit to the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation( NTDC) headquarters in Abuja last Tuesday. He said the film industry is the least untapped.
“Today we have 53 cinema houses with less than 200 screens,but for a population of 200 million people, we need a minimum of 1000 cinema houses and 6000 screens.You can i imagine Nigeria made, $53 million last year from the film industry under 200 screens, how much more when we have 6000 screens. Our music is growing, we are looking at $ 86 million next year”, he said.
“ We need to work harder so that we can actually actualize the potentials of this industry and make It not just the fastest growing sector in Nigeria, but also increase our Gross Domestic Product(GDP) from 1.24 percent, the industry accounts for 2.24 percent of our GDP. This can actually grow to 3 percent of the GDP”, he said.
He charged the Tourism Agency to harness the huge potentials of the industry to attract people to Nigeria, because there are many reasons people should come to Nigeria.
Nigeria is a country of colours with 250 ethnic groups, good culture and almost a year round of good weather.
“We are blessed with a good music industry that has become global and even Nollywood is the second best in the world, our fashion is celebrated globally, adding that the Visa on Arrival policy for African nationals which began operation this year is an added advantage to explore”, he said.
The minister said the tourism sector could generate more revenue into government coffers and increase the fortune in the industry.
Earlier in his address, the Director General of NDTC,Folorunsho Coker said the agency was working on a framework that would reposition It on it on a new path of growth.
“ NTDC has in the last two and a half years been focusing on the new framework, because It is important to have a framework for tourism exploration “,he said.
Given the agency’s progress report, he said the “ Tour Nigeria “and” Nigeria Flavour “twin program he created in 2017 are driving to their full potential to promote domestic tourism.
Highlighting the agency’s roadmap for tourism promotion and development,Mr.Coker said tourism would move very rapidly to grow the country’s economy. The roadmap was named CHIEF,C=corporate and regularity, H=Human capital development, I=Infrastructural development, E=Event and marketing and F=Financing and investment.