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Nigeria eyes $2.3bn from ICT, movies on CBN’S creative industry park

CBN

Nigeria could earn $2.3 billion from Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the movie industry over the next five years following plans by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers’ Committee to establish a creative industry park at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the CBN, said on Monday that with the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Federal Government had handed over the National Theatre to the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee for the development of a creative industry hub.

Speaking at a Creative Nigeria Summit in Lagos, Emefiele said Babajide Sanwo-olu, governor of Lagos State, was supporting the development with the allocation of additional 40 acres of land around the National Theatre and that banks would take over on Wednesday.

While the park could result in potential Gross Domestic Product (GDP) gains of close to $2 billion from ICT with creation of 150,000 skilled and unskilled jobs, the movie industry is expected to generate over $300 million revenue from production and distribution of Nigerian movies at cinema locations at home and abroad as well as the creation of over 200,000 direct and indirect jobs.

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Also, the creative industry park would take the large chunk of $12.7 billion share of the market in the music and textile sub-sector.

Consequently, the initiative over the next five years will enable young Nigerians to capture significant market share of the $10.7 billion music industry.

Nigeria spends over $2 billion on imported textiles, including machine-made clothes imported from Asia, which copy popular Nigerian designs.

Over the next five years, the park will help support 10,000 young Nigerians with improved design skills, while creating over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the CTG industry.

“Our goal through the establishment of these parks is to create an environment where startups and existing businesses can be incubated and rewarded for their creativity,” Emefiele said.

So far, he said the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee intend to support this creative venture with N22 billion of initial funds.

The movie industry’s contribution to the GDP is expected to rise from 1 percent to 3 percent over the next years.

“We intend to support the development of over 50 additional cinemas from our current capacity of 48 cinemas nationwide. The cost structure of these cinemas will be lean in order to make movies affordable to a large section of Nigerians,” he said.

The music industry would also create over 500,000 direct and indirect jobs. Over 50,000 Nigerians are expected to benefit from the ICT centre, which will result in creating over 25,000 software engineers.

Emefiele was concerned that despite Nigeria’s large population, the growth of the creative industries in the country has been limited by the lack of widely accessible shopping platforms, smuggling of goods, piracy, as well as lack of digital payment options.

He promised to curb the worrying phenomenon of piracy of movies and music by supporting the development of digital content and widely accessible platforms under which every Nigerian can purchase or rent movies/music via their mobile phones.