INFORMATION and Culture Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said the National Policy on Culture as well as National Policy on Tourism will soon be launched by government. He said the necessary legal framework for the sector is being concluded to facilitate the launch.
Mohammed, who unveiled the ministry’s agenda for the next four years in Lagos on Sunday, said the ministry will soon finalise work on the Motion Picture Council of Nigeria (MOPICON) bill and submit it to the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The plan, he said, is to create a proper regulatory environment for the sub-sector that has put Nigeria’s name on the global map, thus attracting the much-needed investment to the sector.
The minister also disclosed that part of his agenda for his second term, include the establishment of the Endowment Fund for The Arts to create a legal framework for the financing of the sector. He added that the National Summit for Culture and Tourism, which was held in April 2016, will be a yearly affair beginning from first quarter of next year.
“The ministry’s plan is to ensure a regularly meeting of the Presidential Council on Tourism (PCT) to catalyze the growth of tourism. We plan at least three meetings a year; kick-start the implementation of the parts of the Tourism Masterplan that constitute low-hanging fruits; complete work on the establishment of Tourism Statistics and Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) working with the UNWTO. We have already signed an agreement with the UNWTO in this regard.
“Institute a unified national celebration of the World Tourism Day, instead of the current situation in which we have multiple celebrations; hold a National Council on Culture and Tourism in May next year, and then hold it yearly thereafter; organize a Regional Summit on Culture and Tourism, starting next year, with a view to working with other countries in the West Africa sub-region to foster the development of the sector.”
According to the Minister, the ministry plans to launch the National Festival Calendar this year to attract more tourists, domestic and foreign, to these events. He promised to get more sites in Nigeria inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites while exploring private sector branding of the nation’s Cultural Centres abroad.
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Mohammed, however, noted that there is a misconception in certain circles that the ministry in the past four years, paid more attention to the Information sector than the Culture and Tourism. This, he said, might appear so because the issues dealt with in the Information sector are those that receive the bigger play in the media. “But, I can tell you, with evidence, that we achieved a lot in the Tourism and Culture Sector, or in the Creative Industry generally,” he added.
Mohammed said the National Summit on Culture and Tourism, held in 2016 in Abuja, gave birth to the setting up of an implementation committee to carry out the recommendations of the summit. He said the review of the Tourism Masterplan, the resuscitation of the Presidential Council on Tourism (PCT) and the setting up a Task Force on the Creative Industry were some of the outcomes of the summit.
He said that during his first four years, the ministry convened a roundtable in Lagos that provided stakeholders the platform to engage in business-focused discussions, with a view to initiating and enabling private-sector-led growth and development of the Industry. According to him, this was followed by the Creative Industry Financing Conference to articulate ways to source funding for the creative industry.
Mohammed added: “Another fall-out of the meetings is the Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI) of the Central Bank of Nigeria to improve access to long-term, low-cost financing for entrepreneurs and investors in the Creative Industry and the Information Technology Sectors. Under this Initiative, you can get a loan ranging from 3million naira to 500 million naira for movie production, movie distribution, fashion, music, etc.
“I also led a team of stakeholders to meet with the CBN, upon the recommendation of the Creative Industry Financing Conference. Same applies to the granting of the Pioneer Status, by the Federal Government, to the Creative Industry Sector to boost investment in the sector. It was one of the recommendations from the Creative Industry Financing Conference.”
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