By Amos Tauna
Kaduna (Nigeria) — The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has expressed delight with the initiative of the African International Film Festival (AFRIFF), for providing the platform for film-makers in Africa and the rest of the world to exhibit excellent movies.
He noted that the platform was to provide an avenue for filmmakers to engage themselves in creative conversations that would improve the profession.
Segun Adeyemi, Special Adviser to the Minister of Information and Culture, in a statement said Mr. Mohammed made the commendation on Sunday night in Lagos at the opening of the 7th edition of AFRIFF
“Standing here and gazing at this great gathering, I can feel the confluence of passion and creativity and the promises and possibilities that the future holds for the global movie industry,” he said.
Mohammed, who commended Nollywood for inspiring the movie industry in Africa, said the government of Nigeria was constantly engaging stakeholders towards growing the industry.
“The object of our gathering tonight, the platform on which we celebrate African and International film-makers, is one of the great stories of Nollywood, for AFRIFF – the festival with a vision to inspire and indeed create an ecosystem for the global movie community – was birthed because there is Nollywood,” he added.
The Minister disclosed that the government was pushing for a single-digit interest on loans for infrastructural developments for the Industry, and supporting the building of 100 community cinemas to be evenly spread across the country and also supporting them.
”We are also close to having a world-class pre and post-production facility using the current NTA infrastructure with a few additions,” he stressed.
He said with the advent of the Digital Switch-Over in television broadcasting, the federal government was ensuring that the set-top boxes are enabled to allow the 24 million TV households in Nigeria to buy movies with and without the need of data.
The Minister, who thanked AFRIFF for training 1,500 African aspiring film-makers at home and abroad in its untiring effort to develop the industry, stressed the need to have an industry that could deliver a profitable return on investment for all the players.
AFRIFF is the annual gathering of local and international filmmakers and professionals, celebrities, actors, directors, film critics, and other stakeholders.
