Envoy to support Nigeria on job creation

French Minister delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, Franck Riester, has pledged the French Government’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s creative industry to create jobs.

Riester stated this when he visited AIM Group, a media conglomerate, as part of his first official visit to Nigeria geared towards fostering an intra-cultural relationship between France and Nigeria.

He said the support, which would be made through its foreign policy in supporting cultural and creative industries in partner countries, would help to establish sustainable assistance for many cultural projects.

He acknowledged the resilient spirit of the new generation of Nigerians, who despite the COVID-19 pandemic, have continued to dominate the music and movie production segment.

This, he said, had witnessed massive returns, impressive international successes, and global commendations as the Nigerian cinema and music industry has grown to become an inspiration for other countries.

He said: “The recently held Annecy Lagos animation workshop, in partnership with Annecy International film festival in France and animation Nigeria’s association, which will give five Nigerian animation studios the unique opportunity to pitch their works as part of the Nigerian focus during the 2021 edition of the festival as well as the Wazobia Academy, which is supported by French partners La FEMIS and LAFAAAC aimed at training 1000 young Nigerian’s professionals on TV series scriptwriting is the evident impact of ongoing projects supported by the French Government in supporting young creative within Nigeria.”

Speaking during the visit, Co-founder, Wazobia Media, Tatiana Nouri expressed gratitude to the minister’s support from the French Government through capacity building initiatives such as collaborations between LAFAAAC, LaFemis and Wazobia Academy, which she said would positively impact the continued growth of the Nigerian creative industry and further strengthen the ties between Nigeria and France.

The roundtable engagement was held with Co-founder, Wazobia, Tatiana Nouri; fashion designer, Sike Saro and creative entrepreneur, Ferdinand Adimefe on discussions as it relates to topics that cut across the capacity building, arts, fashion, cinematography and the infusion of both Nigerian and French cultural offerings in building strong alliances to the global market.