NAN-ELS-6
Culture
By Dapo Udom
Lagos, Sept. 29, 2016 (NAN) Mr Adedapo Adelegan, the President, Nigeria British Chamber of Commerce, says the Culture and Creative Industry (CCI) is capable of generating more than 2.2 billion dollars and creating 29.5 million jobs worldwide.
Adelegan made this known at a sensitisation workshop on “Mainstreaming Culture and Creative Industry into the Trade Policy of Nigeria’’, which held at the Lagos Resource Centre, Victoria Island.
According to him, the creative industry has grown increasingly important components of modern post-industrial knowledge based economies and accounted for higher average growth and job creation.
“Equipping and developing the creative industry is essential, because it drives the digital economy.
“It is young, inclusive and entrepreneurial, it also favours the participation of women,” he said.
The president also said that the CCI boosted the attractiveness of cities, through the building of world class infrastructure such as museums.
Adelegan noted that the building of world class cultural infrastructure was important for the enticement of foreign investors.
“Those who invest in a country first come as tourists and when they feel satisfied with the ambience and strength of cultural stability, they come back as investors,’’ he added.
He stated that one very good example of how the CCI had impacted on the Nigerian economy could be seen in the growth of Nollywood since its inception in the early 90’s.
“Nollywood has grown to a 590 million dollars industry with thousands of home videos and music records produced yearly since its inception.’’
The president, however, said that there were factors affecting the growth of CCI, which included political-economy, cultural policies, inability to compete with new levels of technology, and piracy among others.
The entrepreneur noted that in spite of the relative success of the CCI in Nigeria, it was still lagging behind in other creative industries such as architecture, advertising, gaming, books and the visual arts.
According to Adelegan, if we can improve on these other aspects of CCI which we have little technical knowledge of; there will be a significant improvement in the economy.
In his remarks, Babatunde Obalana, the President, National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) said that the country could only improve economically through the exports of goods and ideas.
Obalana added that he was glad that those invited from the ministry, British Chamber of Commerce, and practitioners from Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leon and Jamaica all came for the seminar.
“We had a fantastic time discussing the importance of creative industry and ways by which we can increase its trade policies,’’ he added. (NAN)
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Edited by Emmanuel Okara/Ese E. Ekama