By Abiose Adelaja Adams

The British Council, in collaboration with Generational Voices and First Bank, is to launch a private sector initiative, the Green Paper for the Nigerian Creative Industry, in December to give a new lease of life to the creative arts in Nigeria.

At a training seminar for young people in Lagos, Reginald Bassey, team leader of Generational Voices, said the purpose of the Green Paper is to create a framework for better synergy in the creative industry and improve its economic viability

“The creative industry contributes a large chunk to our total GDP (Gross Domestic Product), but there is a lack of organization that sabotages its growth,” said Bassey.

In his estimation, if huge potentials of the Industry are to be fully harnessed, such a tentative policy document is necessary for a coordinated and harmonized growth.

“We have come up with this concept so that at least we can capture the profile and dynamics of the creative industries in Nigeria – what is happening, trending and moving the sector forward, using social media and several online platforms.

Despite getting little support from government, the creative industry in Nigeria, which includes Nollywood (movies), Performing Arts, Fashion, Visual Arts, Advertising, TV and Broadcast, Arts and Antique and Publishing, contributes 1.42 per cent to the country’s GDP, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

A comparative data from United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, rated Nigeria’s home video industry as the world’s second largest film industry with its potential annual revenue of N522 billion.

Similarly, over 2,000 movies are produced in the country per annum and a viewing audience of over 200 million across Africa and beyond. At the Lagos training, which is part of the process of formulating the policy document, about 45 young people, aged 18-35, unanimously identified major setback of the creative industry to include intellectual property theft; a system that promotes mediocrity over real talents; lack of regulations and synergy, amongst other factors.

A participant, Adenike Adelowo, a creative entrepreneur, spoke passionately about how Nigerians encourage intellectual property theft. “I think it begins with our values as Nigerians. We always want things for free. That is why there is so much piracy,” she observed.

Speaking further, she said “the price of the original copy is usually too expensive and the pirates know, so they make something cheap, they mass produce it and people rush to buy it.”

The World Bank in a recent survey estimated that nine pirated copies of movies are sold for every legitimate one. Piracy is believed to account for more than 80 per cent distributed movies and worth nearly $200m a year.

“These are the issues we hope to address with this document,” Bassey said, adding that “the Green Paper may not be authoritative, but it is like a bible that captures the challenges, struggles, possible solutions to address these problems.”

“It will also introduce a set of strategic, structural and regulatory elements for the domestic markets that will overcome barriers to business development and trade, reduce / ameliorate the effects of piracy, and build a culture of entrepreneurialism across the sector,” he added.

Speaking to www.icirnigeria.org, another participants, Oluwatosin Adebola, a 34-year old graduate of Fine Arts, expressed dismay that government had abandoned creative arts to private sector.

“There is no readily available funding from government for artists. Funding is strictly from the Art Galleries. And the galleries are more interested in making profits than promoting talents. They are only interested in promoting talents that are marketable in the short term,” she lamented.

According to Adebola, who graduated with a second class upper honours from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, the art market is tailored for immediate profitability.

“They do not give room from experimenting with the work of young artists (which may take time). A lot of times, there is no originality because artists copy other artists’ style just to get their works out.”

Adebola believes that the government should help the creative arts industry by coming up with initiatives such as organizing festivals that create opportunities to raise and groom talents.

He cited private sector participation such as of MTN Project Fame West Africa, Nigerian Idols, Naija Sings, Glo XFactors, as musical reality talent shows which have raised young celebrities, as examples of the success stories that government involvement could help replicate.

Bassey is, however, optimistic that a change has already begun with the launch of this Green Paper initiative, Nigerian creative economy which is currently the second employer of labour after agriculture, will top the chart in solving unemployment problem in the next decade , especially as the oil economy is dwindling.