The entertainment industry, in affiliation with the Lagos State Government and the Federal ministry of information and Culture, is to launch an innovative Roundtable toward harnessing the potential of the industry.
Also in the partnership is the Federal Ministry of Finance and Budget Planning, according to Mr Chuks Akamadu, Director General of Afrocultour, a brainchild of the initiative.
He told newsmen on Monday in Abuja that the roundtable was expected to put the entertainment industry in the forefront of harnessing Nigeria’s vast resources, potentials and assets.
“The prime objective of the roundtable is to urgently design an inclusive industry framework for stimulating and re-energising the economy to stabilise and flourish sustainably amid COVID-19, post-COVID-19, and in the face of unprecedented crude oil dwindling fortunes.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the innovation, which is expected to take off on December 10, is the first Nigeria Entertainment and Economic Roundtable.
“It is borne out of a need to fill in the gaps associated with grant initiatives; it is a policy intervention meant to support the creative and entertainment industry.”
Akamadu said that the creative and entertainment industry was a potential cash cow that should be nurtured to take its rightful place in the nation’s economy to enable it contribute to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.
He said that the Roundtable was conceived to be a robust platform for mutually profitable engagement between creative and entertainment industry practitioners and their diverse stakeholders.
Mr Butven Nkem, a former Nigerian Ambassador and Chairman of the Roundtable committee, commended the efforts toward injecting substantial changes in the entertainment industry.
Mrs Joy Maduakor of the finance ministry, in her remark, said that the ministry was ready to partner with the industry to grow the economy.
“The entertainment, hospitality, culture and tourism industry are all categorised into the creative industry; our focus is to harness its economic potentials.
“It is a major focal area in the diversification agenda. If the tourism industry begins to work again, it will attract foreign investors and people will always want to come which will have a mass of multiplier effects,” she said.
NAN reports that the theme of the maiden Roundtable expected to hold in Lagos is: “Positioning the creative and entertainment industry to lead private sector role in supporting federal and state governments’ efforts at acheiving urgent economic diversification”.