Fidelity Bank SMEs forum links growth to creativity, business structure

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria have been urged to understand the need to merge creativity and business structure together in order to succeed and grow their businesses in the Nigeria entertainment industry, especially film making as one of the fast growing job creating industry in Nigeria.

Kunle Afolayan, an actor, film producer and director who was recently appointed into the Board of Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture gave this advice in Lagos last week at Fidelity Bank plc forum.

Afolayan, who was the guess at the Fidelity Bank SMEs forum on Inspiration Fm 92.3, Lagos spoke on “Understanding the Dynamics of Building a Successful Business in the Nigerian Entertainment Industry”. The radio programme organised by Fidelity Bank Plc to educate, inform, advice and inspire budding entrepreneurs currently runs an entertainment series.

According to Afolayan, the ability to combine creativity and business structure is key to running a successful production company in Nigeria. “I run a production company and in a production company you have different department just like the bank, I have the administrative department, human resources, technical department, and the studio where we edit both for sound and film,” he said.

“I am the author lot of times but if I conceive something, I have to pitch it to my team for discussion and come out with a way to make it happen, so creativity and that structure must mix and considered to have a successful business”.

Speaking on what has kept him going as a brand in the film industry, Afolayan opined that having a troubled mind that travels and asked questions he is not able to answer most of the time has been the main factor over the years.

“For me, I like to push it to people and the only way I put it to them is to put it into plays, audio-visuals, so that when people see it they talk. Most of my films when you watch them, even the resolution you still ask questions that is the joy for me, I do not like to just entertain, I like to interact and also to extract from people”.

According to Afolayan, he finds joy in imparting people with his films. “With my films, I want people to have cultural value, production value and entertainment value, and I think that is what has really worked for me,” he said.

However, he encourages Fidelity Bank to continue with the programme because he believes the radio programme is educative to make people understand what goes on behind the scene in a production. He opined the platform will give people the privilege to understand what it takes to produce a film, end-to-end, because when people listen to programme like this they get to learn all of what they cannot learn in school as a guide in the cause of their career.

 

Hope Moses-Ashike Seyi John Salau