Nigeria is Ready For Investments in Creative Industry – Minister

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says

Nigeria is ready to receive investors in the

Creative Industry, having created the enabling environment for

investments through favourable economic policies.

The Minister stated this in Abuja on Friday when he received a

delegation from Huaxia Movie Distribution Group, the second biggest

movie distributors in China, on a courtesy visit to his office.

“Nigeria today is ready to receive investors from abroad in the

Creative Industry because we have the enabling environment in terms of

favourable economic policies. We have a very determined administration

that believes in diversification. We have been preparing ourselves to

sanitize the market so we are tackling the issue of piracy.

“Our programme on digitization is moving very well. So this is the

right time for anybody to really come and invest in Nigeria,” he said,

adding that the Chinese investors have come on the cusp of a

revolution in the Creative Industry.

Alhaji Mohammed welcomed the Chinese movie group’s proposal to invest

in some critical aspects of the Creative Sector, including the

establishment of cinema houses, studios and exhibition centres.

“We hope that this will not just be a talk-shop. We want to be able to

build on this. We want you to give us a plan of action on how you

intend to cooperate with us in the area of exhibition venues, building

cinema houses, especially in the rural areas. Give us a proposal on

mobile cinemas and let us know what you expect of us as a government.

“We want concrete proposals from you in the area of investing in

studios and also in co-production. We also want to know how many

Nigerian films you want to take to China,” he said.

The Minister told the Chinese delegation that the pioneer status

recently granted to the creative sector will enable investors to

benefit from incentives such as tax holiday and withholding tax on

dividends.

In his remarks, the Chief Executive of Huaxia Movie Distribution

Group, Mr. Wei Bian, said his company wants to be part of the future

of Nigerian movie industry, because of its bright prospect not only in

Africa but on the world stage.

He said the company had been emboldened to seek new frontiers in movie

collaboration through a marching order handed down by the Chinese

President for the country to look beyond Hollywood to other

culturally-diverse areas like Africa, with Nigeria a prime

destination.

Mr. Bian expressed delight at the rate of movie production in Nigeria

which, he said, surpasses the number of movies produced in China

annually.

He expressed confidence that Chinese investment in the Nigerian

Creative Industry will further enhance the quality of Nigerian movies,

promote cultural exchanges and open career opportunities for citizens

of both countries.