NIGERIA’S creative industry sector is is yet to live up to its full potential, experts say, but has the capacity to contribute $100 billion annually by 2030 when the government and the private sector partner to create the enabling business environment.

A study conducted by Jobberman, a notable Nigerian career platform, said the sector employs 4.2 million people across five sectors of Media, Entertainment, Beauty, Lifestyle, Visual Arts, as well as Tourism and Hospitality.

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Some of the industry experts who spoke  on February 9 in Abuja at a consultative session to review the proposed draft of the Nigeria Creative Industries Development Bill said Nigeria was not harvesting its full potential in the creative industry.

“It is the foreign companies that often come to speak to our potential in the creative industry. Amazon, Digital Satellite Television, DSTV all know our potential and the kind of market that we have. We need to tell our story and explore our market to its full potential,” a content producer and creative industry expert, Obi Asika said at the event.

Asika said that Nigeria can use its soft power in the creative industry to own the future, by creating a platform that offers the industry a global opportunity to thrive.

An Afrexim Bank senior official, Odi Akanuba, also posited  at the event that Nigeria was very important to the creative narrative of the African continent.

Akanuba observed, however, that funding gaps and relevant enabling laws must be in place to ensure Nigeria reach expected heights in the global creative industry.

“We must look at the financing model of South Korea, India and China. We should see government as a willing partner, especially now we are drafting a bill to foster growth in the sector,” he said.

Another participant, Chika Chukwuka, an investment banker, suggested that an unorthodox financing model be adopted to expand wealth creation for the sector.

Chukwuka remarked that Nigeria can have a huge chunk of the $2.9 trillion creative industry market share through proper planning and development of local infrastructure, and tax rebate for companies investing in the sector.

“We must  create access to funding through investment funds and grants. Tax incentives, rebates for companies investing in developing creative industry value chain, is key to grow the sector,” he said.

He noted that demand for content was growing globally, and urged stakeholders to work together in ensuring the bill becomes a reality.

A senior government official at the event and representative of the Minister of Information and Culture, Olusegun Runsewe, disclosed that a legal team would be set up soon to look at the draft bill

“We will do an official report to the Minister, but as the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), my position will be made known within the next seven days,” Runsewe said.

The Nigeria Creative Industries Development Bill, 2023 seeks to provide an enabling environment for the creative industry in Nigeria.

The objective is to provide a legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the development of a sustainable environment for the industry in Nigeria. This is expected to be in line with the provisions of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) 2005 Convention of the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and Aspiration 5 of the African Union Agenda 2063, for an African with a strong cultural identity and common heritage.