Stakeholders in the creative sector have called for the setting up talent hubs nationwide to nurture and create jobs for young people. They made the call during a panel discussion at a stakeholder workshop held during the week in Abuja by MSwitch Creative Academy, an Abuja-based talent development hub.
With the attendees made up media entrepreneurs, ICT specialists, members of the academia, artistes, and other stakeholders in the creative field, the panelists averred that Nigeria is filled with budding talents without adequate creative hubs to showcase and develop their talents for economic benefits.
Exploring the “Sustainable Pathway to Job Creation” and “Positioning Nigerian Creatives for a Global Post production Demand”, the panelist said establishing adequate creative hubs was the antidote to the problem of youth unemployment.
According to the Head of Production at Mswitch Media, Mr. Opeoluwa Adepoju-Mcplenty, Nigeria does not have a shortage of talents in Nigeria, “we only need platforms for youths to showcase their creativity,” he said.
“Creatives need platforms, like a community where they can share ideas, learn and talk about common issues facing the industry and how they can solve them together, and that is what MSwitch offers,” Opeoluwa added.
For Gabe Converse, Creative Director, The Refinery, a US-based organisation,“Nigeria has very unique stories and there is a need to support Nigerian creatives to work on Nigerian stories and projects.”
Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Mr Ayo Adeagbo said: “Creative hubs should be established in our campuses to prepare students for employment. If we focus on talent discovery and development, the percentage of unemployed youths will reduce.”
“The President Bola Tinubu administration has demonstrated its commitment to developing the creative sector by creating the ministry of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy. I can tell you that we are willing to partner with creative hubs across Nigeria,” he added.
Co-founder of MSwiTch Media, Mr Salami Kadir, said the hub was providing youths with necessary skills in film audio and music production industry. He added that the initiative was to complement the government’s efforts in making young and passionate people self-reliant.
On his part, the National Coordinator, National Talent Export Programme (NATEP) under the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Femi Adeluyi, said: “We are working towards ensuring that talented Nigerian youths get exposed and marketed to the world. So we are available to collaborate with individual talents, as well as creative hubs for our talents to translate into economic benefits.”
Earlier in her welcome address, Executive Director and Co-founder of Mswitch, Zainab Salami, said skills gap was one reason for the rising unemployment in Nigeria. She added that the hub was committed to nurturing creative talents and ideas and empowering them with relevant skills and knowledge.
