Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has disclosed that Nigeria realized $104m from the creative industry in 2019.
Speaking during a working visit to the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday February 25, the Minister described the film industry as the least untapped part of the economy.
Lai also averred that the creative industry is the fastest growing sector of the economy with $53 million and $51 million accrued last year from film and music respectively.
He said ‘‘Today we have 53 cinema houses with less than 200 screens but for a population of 200 million people. We need a minimum of 1,000 cinema houses and 6,000 screens. You can imagine if Nigeria made $53million last year from the film industry under 200 screens, how much more when we have 6,000 screens. Our music is growing; we are looking at $86 million next year. We need to work harder so that we can actually actualise the potentials of this industry and make it not just the fastest growing sector in Nigeria but also increase our GDP from 1.24 per cent, the industry accounts for 2.24 per cent of our GDP. This can actually grow to 3 per cent of the GDP. Nigeria is a country of colours, with 250 ethnic groups, good culture and almost all-year-round good weather. We are blessed with a good music industry that has become global and even Nollywood is the second best in the world. Our fashion is celebrated globally.”