Babangida Solicits Support for Nollywood

Gradually, the Nigerian government is making plans to step up support for the Nigerian make-belief industry as the industry continue to cry about the high level of piracy which has killed lots of intellectual properties.

Nigeria’s former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, in Abuja on Wednesday at the conference of the Society of Nigeria Theatre Artists (SONTA) hosted by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), said through films, Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage could be projected to attract tourists.

The former President who was represented by Alhaji Ismail Ibrahim, a former board chairman of NICO, stated that his government’s policy of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in the late 1980s that gave rise to the deregulation of the broadcast media that energised and sprouted independent producers in the Nigerian film industry.

“Nollywood can be deployed as a veritable tool for cultural diplomacy and social re-engineering. Through films, our rich and diverse cultural heritage and achievements can be projected and promoted to attract tourists and investors the way foreign films have been effectively used to promote India and American national interests,” he said.