Nollywood plays significant role in Nigerian economy, says finance minister

 The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun on Friday said the Nigerian movie industry otherwise known as Nollywood, played a very important role in the country’s economy.

She said this in Abuja at the film industry stakeholder’s workshop aimed at restructuring and reinvigorating Project ACT Nollywood.
The Project ACT Nollywood is a N3 billion grant programme set up by the Federal Government to address challenges impeding the growth of the Nigerian movie industry.

The workshop was to examine outstanding areas of the programme that was yet to be implemented and review them to ensure that they were still appropriate for the industry.
The minister, however, said that the problem of the industry was not in the quality of movies produced but in the structure of the industry.
She said that it was regrettable that pirates were the main beneficiaries of the industry, adding that they waited for creative talents to create a product while they claimed the profit.
According to her, most of those who create the value do not actually get the value in terms of returns.
The minister said that to improve distribution to ensure that the investments actually got the expected return, there was need to evaluate the entire value chain from the tax system to the enforcement system.
She said that there was also a need to ensure sustainability in the industry, adding that a committee would be inaugurated to look into issues raised at the workshop.
“Today, we will inaugurate a committee to review the programme, restructure if necessary and come up with implementation plan.’’