Federal Government Gives Nollywood Over N420M Additional Grant

The Federal Government says it has
released the sum of N420.2 million to the
Nigeria film industry (Nollywood) to
improve and support aspiring practitioners.



According to a statement issued by the
Deputy Director of Information, Federal
Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Patricia
Deworitshe, on Friday in Abuja, the money,
which is the second tranche payment will
benefit 105 film distributors.



The Federal Government had earlier
introduced the “Project Act Nollywood’’,
with three primary components aimed at
developing the movie making value chain.



The components are the Film Production
Fund (FPF), Capacity Building Fund (CBF) and
Innovative Distribution Fund (IDF).



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.



The objectives of IDF is to improve the
distribution network of Nigerian Audio-
Visual contents, cut down on piracy, create
jobs, and protect Intellectual Property
Rights (IPR) within the Nigerian
Entertainment Industry.



N1.8 billion was approved for
disbursement to 106 beneficiaries in this
component, and N1.335 billion was
disbursed earlier in the year as the first
tranche to 105 beneficiaries.



Deworitshe said that before the release of
the second tranche, the finance ministry
had earlier carried out a successful
monitoring and evaluation of the first
tranche disbursement.


“Fifteen community cinemas and viewing
centres have been established through the
grant and this has improved the
distribution network of movies in Nigeria.



“The programme has supported 18 firms in
strengthening online distribution
platforms, this has helped curb illegal
downloads and piracy.



“Two hundred and fifty-six permanent jobs
and 544 temporary jobs have been created
through the financial support provided to
105 beneficiaries by the programme,’’ she
said.



Deworitshe said the programme had also
aided the extension of the Nollywood
Industry to sub-Sahara Africa through the
funding of National distributors to expand
their distribution capacity and network.



She said through the programme,
distributors had expanded their capacity to
lip-synching their content in French for
onward distribution to the ECOWAS sub-
region.