First Bank Limited, one of Nigeria’s foremost financial institutions, re-affirmed its commitment to strengthening the creative industry with a highly anticipated film ‘Ayinla’ by veteran filmmaker, Tunde Kelani, featuring Lateef Adedimeji as the lead character premiered on Sunday, June 13.
The bank through its First@arts platform created to support the entire value chain of the creative arts participated in the groundbreaking premiere of the much talked about Ayinla at the EbonyLife Place in Victoria Island, Lagos, and had film stars like Kunle Afolayan, Kunle Remi, Mr Macaroni, Femi Branch, Toyin Abraham, Mercy Aigbe, Omowunmi Dada, Bimbo Ademoye, and Big Brother Africa’s Tayo Faniran, amongst several others.
The movie, Ayinla appeals to a multi-faceted audience that cuts across fans of highlife and Afrobeat music, the youth, and the elite Yoruba demography. It is about the life and times of late Nigerian musician, Ayinla Omowura who made fame with his Apala music laced with wisdom, grit, and yabs
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The highlight of the event was when First Bank handed a cheque of N500,000 each to Osas Ighodaro and Akah Nnani the best-dressed female and male actors respectively to reward their originality in their interpretation of a cultural extravaganza.
This is a First Bank initiative to support the creative industry end to end – the entire value of the creative industry, which is fast growing into a multi-billion-dollar business and a leading contributor to Nigeria’s GDP in the nearest future.
Commenting on the sponsorship of the movie, Ayinla, the MD/CEO of First Bank Nigeria Limited, Mr Adesola Adeduntan said, “Over time, we have been involved in the sponsorship of several socio-cultural initiatives in the creative arts industry like Moremi, Makaliki, Oba Esugbayi stage drama, October 1st (a movie) and the Calabar Festival.
Even in the music industry, we have supported and sponsored artists like Davido, Burna Boy, and a host of other reigning stars. Importantly, the Bank’s sponsorship of ‘Ayinla’ affirms the Bank’s support for the development of arts in Nigeria under our First@arts initiative.’
He noted that “FirstBank believes that our culture, our art, is a very important part of who we are, and it reflects who we are. And for us to ensure that our culture, our arts, our practices don’t perish, especially one that will continue to mainstream our arts, and that is what this movie emphasises a lot.”
