As part of government’s efforts to create jobs, the minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, between the National Council for Arts and Culture, NCAC, and the Bank of Industry, BoI, which makes available N300 million loan for stakeholders in the Creative Industry. The partnership is expected to create about 200,000 jobs in the sector.
The minister said this in Abuja on Friday when the director general of the council, Olusegun Runsewe, presented to him the MoU.
“I have been reliably informed that top on the list of the benefits that will accrue from this landmark MoU is that it will create over 200,000 jobs for the sector. This is epochal, and it is in line with one of the cardinal programmes of this administration, which is job creation and empowerment.
”The MoU will also act as a catalyst for the development of the country’s craft industries, create a financing window and make available loanable funds to be accessed by all NCAC stakeholders, as well as assist the stakeholders in capacity building,” he said.
Resewe and Lai Mohammed
Alhaji Mohammed said the MoU will equally enhance the capacity of producers of cultural products and services to work towards attaining the standard of modern practice in the packaging of their cultural products, to enable them to compete favourably in the global markets and earn the nation’s Artists a decent living.
The minister commended Runsewe for putting together ”this momentous event” just a few days after assuming office as the NCAC DG, and also thanked the Acting MD of BoI, Waheed Olagunju, for his support for the creative industry.
“As you may all be aware, one of the factors militating against the promotion of the Nigerian creative industries has been a lack of access to funding for the Artists to develop their creative works as well as weak access to international markets, due to poor packaging and standard. I am therefore happy to say that with the signing of this MoU, Nigerian artists can heave a sigh of relief,” he said.
In his remarks, Otunba Runsewe described the MOU as a milestone in the creative sector, being the first time in history that the sector will access funds from a financial institution with a single digit interest rate.
“Today, we have come to make a history-making presentation to the Honourable Minister. Today happens to be a day that will create a change and we are going to tell our story the way it should have been told some few years ago,” he said.
The NCAC DG acknowledged the leadership role of the minister, particularly in leveraging on the unique potential of the creative industry to drive the diversification of the economy away from oil.
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