FG releases N300m for capacity building in Nollywood

[TGD]

NOLLYWOOD practitioners can now access the N3 billion Presidential Intervention Fund being managed by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Minister of Tourism, Edem Duke.

According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance, Paul Nwabuikwu, action on the N3 billion support promised the Nigerian film industry by President Goodluck Jonathan has formally commenced with the release of N300 million meant for capacity building. However, application for the fund will open in July.

Nevertheless, the capacity-building fund, broken down into two components of N150 million each, will be the first of a series of initiatives planned under Project Act Nollywood. The first component is a training fund of N150 million dedicated to training and skills acquisition for practitioners in all competencies in the entire value chain of Nigeria's movie industry.

The statement listed areas of practice that can benefit from the fund to include scriptwriting, directing, production and production design, special effects, lighting, sound, HD techniques, acting, cinematography, make-up and editing.

The second component is the capacity development fund, which will give grants to existing local private institutes that offer training courses, programmes and technical certification in the movie industry. Additionally, this fund, according to Nwabuikwu, may be used to upgrade existing facilities, procure equipment and develop internal capacity to offer a set of courses/training programmes, which address key skills gap.

However, to benefit from this fund category, interested institutes must prove to have been "registered before January 1, 2013, and be competent enough to train according to global best practices (including for organisations partnering the training programmes from reputable international film institutions) on sustainable basis."

Speaking on the development, Okonjo-Iweala said the establishment of the fund underscored government's commitment to supporting Nollywood in recognition of the film industry's contributions to the economy and for projecting the country.

"This is the first of the initiatives planned under Project Act Nollywood, and it shows that the President is keeping his word to the industry and to Nigerians," she said. "Nollywood deserves this support because it has added value to the economy by creating jobs and acting as an ambassador to the country, projecting Nigeria to many parts of the world that hitherto knew little or nothing about the country."

She stressed that Project Act Nollywood was not to be shared to practitioners but that the overall objective was to support the industry in a sustainable way that practitioners could leverage to improve their capacity and output in key areas.

The minister also confirmed that the fund would be open for applications from July to December 2013. Though guidelines for accessing the funds would be published soon, guidelines for applicants for the capacity fund indicate that "applicants must be Nigerians" and "must be industry practitioners."

Also, membership of an industry association or guild is encouraged but is "not a pre-requisite to meet application requirements, just as courses commencing after December 31 are eligible provided the application is received before December 31, 2013.



The Guardian