Ministry To Present 3 Bills To National Assembly To Re-position Creative Industries

The Federal Ministry of Information and Culture is to present three
bills to the National Assembly in its effort to re-position the
Creative Industry for optimal performance through legislative and
regulatory framework.

The Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday
when he received some officials of the Copyright Society of Nigeria
(COSON) on a courtesy visit to his office.

“We are putting three bills before the National Assembly. The first is
the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the second is MOPICON (Motion
Picture Council of Nigeria) because we believe that we must create
that enabling environment for the creative industry and the third is the
bill for the Establishment of the Tourism Development Fund,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said the current situation under which artists access
funds at high interest rates for their production is not encouraging,
and that the enactment of the NEA will open new vista of
opportunity for players in the industry to access funds that will
enhance their performance.

He said MOPICON, on the other hand, will provide a self-regulatory
framework to guide and standardize the activities of the nation’s
movie industry, while the Tourism Development Fund will help in providing
funds for training and project development, among others

The Minister identified piracy as the biggest challenge facing the
creative industry and advised COSON to partner with other stakeholders
in the industry to form a Task Force that will work along with the
government to check the menace of pirates.

On the issue of payment of royalty on music being played by
government-owned broadcast stations, the Minister insisted that the
existing agreement between COSON and the broadcasters should be
respected for the mutual benefit of both parties.

The Minister acknowledged that the Private Copy Levy is a veritable
instrument that will guard against the infringement of intellectual
property right but emphasized that the law has to be reviewed to
conform with current realities.

“Yes, it is correct that Section 28 of the Law provides for it. You
are also right to say that in Year 2012, the Attorney General actually
signed the document but unfortunately there are issues that we all
need to sit down together to resolve before the Private Copy Levy Law
can even be implemented. One which we all agreed is that when this law
was signed, the level of technology is not what it is today. If you
want to implement that law, you are going to run into a lot of
challenges.

“My advice is that we should look at that law and see whether we are
going to amend it to take care of the challenges of technology,
otherwise we will not be able to implement it,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said his ministry and that of Justice, the National
Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion as well as COSON need
to come together and take a second look at the Private Copy Levy with
a view to operationalizing the law in line with current realities.

He said COSON also needs to engage with the telecommunications
companies to agree on how the two parties can mutually benefit from
the intellectual property of the musicians being used by the
companies.

The Minister restated the commitment of the present administration to
take all the necessary measures to ensure that the Creative Industry
becomes a viable economy, saying the future of Nigeria is in the
Creative Industry and not in commodities.

In his remarks, COSON President Tony Okoroji hailed the Minister for
being a quintessential public servant and expressed confidence in the
present administration’s political will to implement policies that
will protect the intellectual property of the artists.

He said COSON is on an advocacy to put value to Nigeria’s music in
view of the widespread infringement on intellectual property right by
broadcast stations, telecommunications companies and online platforms.

Chief Okoroji stressed the need to put in place a regulatory framework
that will utilize music to create wealth for the nation, particularly
the implementation of the Private Copy Levy.

Also at the meeting were the Directors General of the National
Broadcasting Commission, Mr Kawu Modibbo; Nigerian Television
Authority, Mallam Yakub Ibn Mohammed and the Federal Radio Corporation
of Nigeria, Mr. Mansur Liman.