
The enhancement of creative industry will not only shore up the revenue generation ratio of the nation, but goes a long way at reducing the soaring rate of unemployment in the country.
Mrs Olufunmilola Wey, Promoter, Eco Centre for Transformation and Empowerment Initiative who made this known in an interview with Tribune Travel and Tourism Magazine in Osogbo said “if well enhanced and coordinated, this singular industry is capable of reducing unemployment in Nigeria by 60 per cent.”
She said “I will implore the Federal Government of Nigeria to borrow a leaf from the Republic of Indonesia which shares similar geographical and ethnic diversities in the way it has utilised the creative industry. To tell you how potent the industry is and how Indonesia appreciates the sector, it created a separate ministry called Ministry of Tourism and Creative Industry. The country realised the symbiotic synergy of the tourism industry feeding the creative sector”.
She said “It is gratifying that the economic situation in the country particularly the dwindling fortune of the oil is forcing the government not only to look for alternative source of revenue, but also forcing them to take note of some golden assets which were hitherto unnoticed”
Mrs Wey pointed out “I am also particularly happy that the Director-General, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mr Folorunsho Folarin Coker has a good grasp of the potency of the creative industry and his determination to explore its potentialities for the glory of tourism”.
She revealed “this is what we at the Eco Centre for Transformation and Empowerment Initiative have been promoting. We have been calling attention of the government and the people to the inexhaustible fortune and wealth in the creative industry via eco tourism and environment. This is the industry of the next millennium”.