Stakeholders in the entertainment industry recently converged on Abuja to collectively explore innovative pathways for financing creative enterprises in Nigeria.
Financing creative enterprises in the country, which was one of the goals for the meeting, the stakeholders noted, could be achieved by leveraging digital transformation and strengthening Nigeria’s legal and regulatory frameworks to support entrepreneurs in the industry.
The Minister for Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, who was at the gathering in the nation’s capital city, tasked those in attendance to prioritize skills development, intellectual property protection, and access to global markets to ensure the sustainability and competitiveness of Nigeria’s creative economy.
The event, which was the second edition of the Nigerian Entertainment and Economic Roundtable, organized by AFROCULTOUR, provided a platform for dialogue, policy engagement, and investment exploration within the dynamic sectors of art, culture, tourism, and the creative economy.
The Minister, who was represented by the Director, Tourism and Culture of the Ministry, appreciated the organizer’s efforts, which aim at fostering sustainable development, unlocking new opportunities, and advancing Nigeria’s economic diversification agenda.
The theme of the summit, “CULTOUR: Unlocking Possibilities and Locating Pathways to Rapid Economic Diversification,” she noted, was both timely and strategic as it highlights the immense potential embedded within the country’s cultural, tourism, and creative industries, emphasizing their role as viable economic pillars in a world where innovation, creativity, and heritage preservation are driving inclusive growth and prosperity.
“Nigeria is richly endowed with an unparalleled cultural heritage, vibrant artistic expressions, and a thriving creative industry that has gained global recognition.
“From the nation’s entertainment sectors of Nollywood to Afrobeats, fashion, literature, and tourism, our creative ecosystem has consistently demonstrated its capacity to generate wealth, create employment, and project Nigeria’s identity to the world.
“However, the full realization of this potential requires a deliberate and structured approach to policymaking, investment facilitation, and strategic partnerships between the public and private sectors,” she said.
Consequently, she said the Roundtable provides a critical platform for meaningful discourse on how to further develop the nation’s tourism, cultural, and creative economy into a significant driver of national growth.
“In line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of this present Administration, this government remains committed to implementing policies and initiatives that promote an enabling environment for the growth of this sector through strategic collaborations with industry stakeholders,” the Minister said.
The Convener and Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Entertainment and Economic Roundtable, Chuks Akamadu, underscored the importance of tourism and entertainment, saying it is a major contributor to the country’s economic growth.
Akamadu said the entertainment industry can drive Nigeria’s economic development and lead the private sector in supporting government initiatives, emphasizing the sector’s potential for national growth and development.
He emphasized the need for government to prioritize the sector, which he noted is a major contributor to any nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Nigeria Entertainment and Economic Roundtable is a policy dialogue and investment summit that provides a robust platform for mutually beneficial interface among policymakers, creative and tourism industry practitioners, scholars, and investors (local and foreign) for purposes of mainstreaming the sectors into Federal and State Governments’ economies, sustainable development, and shared prosperity.
There is no denying the fact that Nigeria has come under the vice grip of persistent and incremental annual budget deficits that are substantially financed through foreign loans and, essentially, for recurrent expenditure, in the face of worsening volatility of oil prices in the global market.
And for a country that depends heavily on her oil and gas deposit for survival, more needs to be done with every sense of urgency.
It is against this backdrop that the Roundtable emerged to take the economic diversification aspirations of government a notch higher by first recognizing culture and tourism as Nigeria’s sleeping cash-cow, a low-hanging fruit, and potent tool for economic growth and development.
The Roundtable, in the main, seeks to identify and bridge industry gaps: gap between theory and praxis; gap between policy formulation and its implementation; gap between potential and its harnessing; and indeed gap between a nation’s desire and the attainment of same.
It is indisputable that Nigeria’s cultural and tourism endowments are unique, enormous, and globally competitive, ranging from her material and immaterial cultural heritage to art and craft, performing arts, choice tourists’ destinations, historical and cultural sites, as well as highly ritualized cultural practices.
Consequently, the summit aimed to broaden the conversation on how best to quickly recharge Nigeria’s struggling economy by deploying culture and tourism as potent tools for economic diversification and sustainable development.
The Roundtable reckons that the challenge before the Federal and State Governments is the ability to muster the requisite political nerve to prioritize culture and tourism by seeing it rightly as a useful economic pillar.
Six governors of Abia, Alex Otto; Bauchi, Bala Muhammad; Katsina, Dikko Radda; Ogun, Dapo Abiodun; Plateau, Caleb Mutfwang; and Sokoto, Aliyu Sokoto, were honoured for their exceptional dedication to promoting tourism and cultural development in their states.
Akamadu stressed the importance of prioritizing these sectors, which, he noted, are vital contributors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of any country.
He also underscored the value of sharing ideas, noting that the Roundtable has been a positive influence on the creative industry over the years.
The Managing Director (MD) of the World Trade Center, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, expressed her support for efforts to establish a robust platform for collaboration among industry professionals, policymakers, and investors.
She praised the Roundtable for providing a space for meaningful discussions on how to further develop Nigeria’s tourism, cultural, and creative sectors into major drivers of national economic growth.
