The Minister of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, says the creative economy will increase the country’s GDP by contributing at least $100 billion by 2030.
Speaking during an interview, Musawa stated that her ministry has a robust plan and strategy in place to achieve the target.
Her words: “We have done a lot of research, and we have used organisations such as BCG, and Mckenzie to do a baseline because the data is not there. We have looked at other countries that have been able to thrive in this industry, and we have been able to project that the creative industry is going to contribute at least $100 billion by 2030 to increase the GDP. We have come up with a very robust plan, strategy, and roadmap to achieve that.
“I am confident that with the creative economy, once we can cultivate it in the right way, we will bring value back into Nigeria just from the artistry and creativity that we have in the country.”
Musawa also stated that plans are in place to strengthen the country’s copyright laws to give creatives legal backing for their works and protect them against piracy.
She said, “We have to fortify the copyright laws in a way that would be able to cover all the areas. There are so many lacunae as far as copyright and intellectual property go. Finding ways to bring the IP laws together is very foundational for me because we can really move from the bottom to anywhere without having proper IP securitization, and so in the next few weeks, Nigeria will be able to see the ways that we are engaging the industry and the way we are putting a legal and regulatory framework together.
“So, we will give the people within the industry the sort of legal backing and support that they deserve.
“We have looked at the model that was used in Rwanda and the one that is used in Ghana, and we are going to replicate it in a way that is fashioned in the Nigerian way. Now that we are on the trajectory of producing or building this industry, we are going to do something much bigger and more sustainable.
“I think everything in the creative industry is a low-hanging fruit because the talent is there already and the people in the industry have been able to survive and thrive on their own, so it’s just for the government to key in, and for the first time in Nigeria, the government has shown interest and sort of specifically given a ministry that would specifically cater to this industry, and one thing we want to do is populate the ministry with people in the industry.
“We have spent time doing research, and now we are at the implementing stage, so in the next few weeks, certainly in the next few months, you will see the implementation of different policies that are going to cater towards building a very strong foundation for the creative industry.”
