AFRIFF: FG will build 100 community cinemas, studio facilities across the country —Lai Mohammed

As the fifth edition of the African International Film Festival (AFRIFF) kicked off in Lagos during the week, about a hundred novel community cinema houses, across the country, have been promised to the Nigerian movie industry, also known as Nollywood.

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Lai Mohammed, made this known at the opening session of AFRIFF, recently, restating the Federal Government’s renewed commitment to the industry.

According to him, in addition to the promised 100 cinema community houses, there were also plans to build a state-of-the-art pre- and post-production studio facility for each geo-political zone of the federation, as well as ensure a single digit interest on loans for movie production.

“Nigerian government is proud of Nollywood and is constantly engaging stakeholders towards building the industry.We are pursuing single digit interest on loans for movie production. We are supporting the building of 100 community cinemas with even spread across the country. It is unacceptable that we only have 49 cinema houses throughout the entire country. We are also committed to providing world-class pre- and post-production studio facilities in each of the geo-political zones in the country. We are also ensuring that setup boxes are enabled to allow customers in our over 30 television houses buy our movies.

“The platform on which we are gathered to celebrate African and international film-makers is one of the great stories of Nollywood. For AFRIFF was created because there is Nollywood. AFRIFF the festival has the vision to inspire and, indeed, create an ecosystem for the global movie community. AFRIFF helps develop the creativity of the tourism sector; we are sure that we have an industry that will deliver profitable return for all players. This festival means so much to me, as it does to the industry. Having trained more than 1,500 industry practitioners, and sentmore than 100 persons on trainings abroad, and also discussing ways to take the industry to the next level, and promoting the Nigerian film and entertainment internationally, I cannot but identify with the initiative, both in my personal capacity and also as the minister of information, tourism and culture,” he stated.