Keshi’s audio on Nigeria’s GDPAudio Attached
NAN-ELS-14
GDP
By Ijeoma Ndubisi
Abuja, Sept. 28, 2016 (NAN) National art and craft festivals can help boost Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Mrs Dayo Keshi, the Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), has said.
Keshi said this when she featured at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to her, national festivals can be used as an instrument of diversifying the economy rather than an avenue for uniting the people of the country.
Cue in audio
“The National Festival for Arts and Culture (NAFEST) is called the Unity Festival because that is what it is borne out of.
“But over the years, we’ve also looked at other areas that are salient to Nigeria’s growth using festivals.
“It’s not about the unity of Nigeria; we’ve gone long past that.
“Now it is about looking for where else we can improve on Nigeria’s GDP using National festivals such as NAFEST.
“With NAFEST we tend to work more with the grassroots; the empowerment actually is at the grassroots, because the average custodians of our creative cultural industries exist at the grassroots.
“So during a NAFEST we reach out to everybody and any host state will find that the economy at that level is galvanised because the sachet water seller sells more water, the groundnut seller does the same, the taxi drivers, the hotels – for everybody, it’s brisk business.
“They don’t make billions. No, what the festival does is to strengthen the economy and create a sense of belonging at the grassroots.’’
Cue out audio
NAN reports that the 2016 NAFEST scheduled to hold in Uyo from Oct. 2 to Oct. 9 has `Exploring the Goldmine Inherent in Nigeria’s Creative Industry’. (NAN)
NIU/OSA/YEE
Edited by Shittu Obassa/Controlled by Emmanuel Yashim
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