The Nigerian government has unveiled plans to generate an annual revenue of at least $100 billion through the creative industry. The plan was unveiled by the Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa at a roundtable for local and international investors.
Musawa noted that the creative and entertainment industry in Nigeria has the potential to generate more than the current annual revenue of $5 billion. To harness this potential, she said the government has identified 14 critical initiatives that will drive the growth of the sector and boost government revenue.
The initiatives, according to her, are grouped into sub sectors some of which are; Technology, Infrastructure and Funding, International Culture Promotion, and Intellectual Property Monetization.
In the area of technology, the government intends to create a content creation mechanism that will help Nigerian creatives to access improved and discounted digital tools. In addition, the Nigerian content distribution initiative will be created to expand internet accessibility and boost the reach of content creators.
For infrastructure and funding, the government will provide the needed infrastructure for the sector to thrive while leveraging public-private partnership to get funding. The goal here is to give incentives to creatives.
The international culture promotion aspect will help showcase creatives to the world stage. In addition, creatives will be able to protect and monetise their intellectual property through the intellectual property monetisation scheme.
With these plans, the government intends to create over two million jobs annually through the creative sector. Currently, Nigeria’s creative sector has a very low contribution to the GDP compared to other countries.
Nigeria’s creative sector contributes just 1.2% to the country’s GDP compared to Morocco (2.7%), South Africa (3.0%), and Egypt (4.3%). The government hopes to boost the sector through this new plan.
