The Federal Government says it plans to generate at least $100bn and also create over two million jobs from the country's creative economy industry annually.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, while speaking at a roundtable for local and international investors in Ikoyi, Lagos where she presented the ministry’s eight-point agenda and template.
She spoke on the government’s readiness and interest in improving the nation’s economy through heavy investment in the creative Industry.
The minister complained that despite its huge potentials and significance as a lucrative and trending industry, Nigeria’s creative industry at the moment contributes only $5bn to the economy, with its different sub-sectors at various stages of development.
She further explained that statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics indicates that Nigeria’s creative economy has a very low contribution to overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in comparison with other countries.
Records show that the industry contributed just 1.2 per cent to Nigeria’s GDP in 2022, which is the least when compared to other African countries like Morocco (2.7 per cent), South Africa (3.0 per cent), and Egypt (4.3 per cent) respectively.
She also explained that Nigeria has been ranked low (1.0 per cent) in its ability to provide government profits and revenue from the sector, compared to other African countries including South Africa’s that has 12.5 per cent.
The minister stated that in the verge of the government's interest in improving the economic sector, the ministry has identified pivotal and key angles in the industry that will boost the nation’s economy.
She said, : “The ministry has identified 14 pivotal initiatives that will drive the sector’s growth and significantly boost government revenue by between $10bn – $20bn.”
According to the minister, the initiatives fall under four significant pillars, which include technology, and intellectual property monetization.
She also added that for infrastructure and funding, it will entail cataloguing existing infrastructure for the Arts, Culture and Creative Economy and its current state, developing the appropriate infrastructure needed for the industry and leveraging public-private partnerships to fund development, providing incentives to stakeholders in the creative economy to boost investment and adoption of strategic initiatives.
Musawa said, “Nigeria’s creative economy has the potential to grow by 400 per cent by 2027, positioning the sector to leapfrog in the long term and deliver the vision for the sector’’,
“The ministry will establish a culture promotion office collaborating with Nigerian embassies abroad, to promote Nigerian arts, culture and creative economy, and leverage AFCTA to boost Nigerian creative output export regionally and globally’’.
The minister said that for intellectual property monetization, the ministry would seek to establish globally standardized collection management organizations for most of the sectors, launch a copyright oversight initiative in partnership with the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) in other to enhance monitoring, tracking, and enforcement of copyright standards.
She further revealed that the Ministry has already created several initiatives and entered into collaborations towards the realization of its set objectives, with development and implementation of the intellectual property framework.
The minister also highlighted plans to provide Nigerian creatives with improved and discounted digital tools, launch the Nigeria Content Distribution Initiative, conduct a study to size the creative industry and expand internet access in underserved regions to support these government plans.
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