Bar. Hanatu Musa Musawa, Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy.
Investors who wish to establish cottage cum community cinema in Nigeria, will now enjoy licensing waivers as recently approved by the Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Bar. Hanatu Musa Musawa.
Dr. Husseini Shaibu, Executive Director of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), made this disclosure announced in Lafia, Nassarawa State, during a meeting with stakeholders.
The ED said the waiver approval was in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s agenda of improving the playing field on which people and particularly companies operate.
He also stated that waiver approval aligned with the Ministers’ agenda of providing incentives needed to encourage investment in the creative industry, improving revenue generation for government and the filmmakers, as well as create jobs for youths across the country.
Husseini re-echoed how passionately the Minister had been working tirelessly to reposition Nigeria as Africa’s creative capital and a global creative hub.
The Executive Director noted that the decision to grant a licensing waiver would have a huge multiplier effect in the bottom rung of the cinema exhibitor pyramid.
Said he: “This and other incentives, the Minister has promised will no doubt, fuel the expansion of Cinema screens and promote wider screening of Nollywood films at the local box office”.
Husseini added that following the approval by the Minister, the Board had granted a provisional approval to an investor to test-run a community cinema project for a period of twelve months, noting that following favourable results of that experience, the Board had to make recommendations to the Minister to grant waivers to stakeholders to open up the film exhibition space, especially for local content.
NFVCB boss recalled that the issue came up informally during the recently concluded Morality and Ethics in Film Production round-table with stakeholders in Lagos.
The Executive Director had advocated that stakeholders should consider the establishment of Community Cinemas as a low hanging fruit to bring cinema goers in communities, towns, and villages back to the big screen. Citing instances in other climes like India, where there are community cinemas standing side by side with the established cinemas, Husseini noted that operators of community Cinema could collaborate with the established cinema owners to bring a distinct cinematic experience to cinema enthusiasts.
He averred that it was after the Board aggregated all the demands and requests that the Board sought the consent of the Honorable Minister for a waiver to revive the sector, which was granted same day, noting that the gesture by the Minister would no doubt stimulate the film industry by incentivising cinema companies.
The Executive Director also hinted that the Board had also sent a proposal to the Minister for a reduction in the exhibition and distribution license fees payable by operators to further open up the space.
Husseini described these policies as smart strategic decisions by the Minister to reignite and stimulate investment in the sector, just as he noted that the Minister had been supportive of the Board.
He further stressed that the management had received her blessings to rejig the sector and undertake a number of reforms, one of which the board had already started implementing as the reduction in classification time for film and video works.
Said Husseini: “We have already reduced duration or what they call the come back time for film classification to a maximum of 48 hours for full feature films and same day classification for dramatised short content (skits) and musical videos. We have also introduced online submissions to make things easier for filmmakers and content creators”.
Husseini added that the Board would continue to engage filmmakers and content creators on the need for them to submit their films and video works for classification before exhibition either on the traditional or digital platforms.
