The Federal Government has made good its promise of rejuvenating the Nollywood Industry by injecting and distributing the 2nd and last tranche of N420.2million to 105 beneficiaries of the Innovative Distribution Fund(IDF).
Deputy Director, Information of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs Patricia Deworitshe in a signed statement made available to Economic Confidential in Abuja, said the amount represents the last tranche of the approved N1.8 billion, adding that the sum of N1.335 billion had earlier been disbursed to the 105 beneficiaries.
The statement further said that during the Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E) of this first tranche disbursement, the Project Implementation Unit (PIU of the federal government recorded a number of achievements in line with the objectives of the programme which include but not limited to the establishment of 15 community cinemas and viewing centers through the grant and this has improved the distribution network of movies in Nigeria.
According to Mrs. Deworitshe, the programme has supported 18 firms in strengthening online distribution platforms, which has helped curb illegal downloads and piracy, creation of 256 permanent jobs and 544 temporary jobs through the financial support provided to 105 beneficiaries by the programme, while the programme has equally aided the extension of the Nollywood Industry to sub-Sahara Africa through the funding of National distributors to expand their distribution capacity and network. The statement noted that the National distributors are expanding their capacity to lip-synching their content in French for onward distribution to the ECOWAS sub-region.
The statement further said the objective is sustain the growth of Nigeria’s movie Industry, encourage the Industry realize its potential of being a significant creator of employment and considerable contributor to GDP, apart from addressing some of the key challenges currently facing the Industry.
At the commencement of the programme last year, Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun that the intervention aims to improve and promote key components of the value chain through the provision of grants scheme designed to support existing or aspiring practitioners within the Industry, including the Diaspora.
Project Components
She noted that the Project ACT-Nollywood has 3 primary components of Film Production Fund (FPF), Capacity Building Fund (CBF) and Innovative Distribution Fund (IDF), stressing that the (FPF) and (CBF) have been fully implemented while the (IDF) which is the third component of the project is on-going. The (IDF) covers online, National, Regional and community categories of Nollywood Film distribution and exhibition.
According to her, the objectives of IDF are to improve the distribution network of Nigerian Audio-Visual contents, cut down on piracy, create jobs (direct and indirect) and the protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) within the Nigerian Entertainment Industry.
