Ben Bruce honored at NFVCB PAO conference

Founder of SilverBird Group, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce has been named the Father of Cinemas at the just concluded fourth edition of the Peace Anyiam Osigwe Nigeria Digital Content Regulation conference.

The conference, a brain child of the National Film and Video Censors Board, also recognized Nigerian movies that did very well in the box office in the last 10 years. Some of the movies include Sugar Rush, A Tribe Called Judah, Chief Daddy and Fifty.

Murray-Bruce, who received the award personally, said he was happy to be recognized and also emphasized that the film industry in Nigeria is a goldmine which a lot of people should be encouraged to tap into.

“When SilverBird was 30 years, I went to the then President Goodluck Jonathan and I asked him to give me a present. I told him to create a fund for the entertainment industry. He created a 250 million dollars fund. The sad thing is that I never partook in that fund. I didn’t take a loan from that fund.

“The industry is very successful. For all the things I did for the industry, I never made one movie. I am working on some scripts and in doing the movie; we will address some fundamental issues. We are sitting on a multibillion dollar industry. Peace (Osigwe) had come to my house before died and she asked me why I had abandoned the industry. She told me I created something and I abandoned it to become a politician. We will go into partnership with some of the stakeholders in the industry. We will purchase a cinema chain in the world so that we can show our movies. We have to own a cinema chain to dominate the world. We need to tell the world that we are here,” Murray-Bruce said.

The executive director of NFVCB, Dr. Shaibu Husseini, said that the board is dedicated to ensuring that the regulatory framework supports the growth of the creative sector, while protecting the interests of consumers and stakeholders.

“We are committed to promoting a vibrant and responsible creative sector, and events like this conference are crucial to achieving that goal,” he said.