Following the recent lull in the disbursement of what is left of the N3billion World Bank intervention fund for the Nigerian film industry, some filmmakers, last Friday, visited the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, in Abuja.
Led by notable film marketer, Mr. Gab Okoye, aka Gabosky, the group, expressed concerns over the N1.9 billion left of the grant, saying that the sum, having been earmarked for Innovative Distribution Fund (IDF) remains the most important aspect of the scheme, tagged Project ACT Nollywood.
Former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had approved the disbursement of N300million and N800million for capacity building and film production respectively.
According to Gabosky, the new leadership is still looking in the direction of possible misappropriations, thereby neglecting the most important aspect of the grant.
He said: “The Minister assured us that something will be done very soon. She even called the Director of Project ACT Nollywood who explained how far they have gone with the project. The capacity building aspect has two elements; the individual capacity building fund and the institutional capacity building fund. They have completed the aspect that has to do with the individual capacity building. However, there are about four institutions that are yet to get the fund probably because some of them are yet to get the NUC accreditation.
“Now, the Innovative Distribution Fund which is supposed to be the driving force for the other segments is still pending. Although they have not given anybody any money for this, but they are assuring us that the money is still intact.”
Gabosky also revealed that the World Bank is no longer comfortable with the delay, and is contemplating funding music distribution. “We asked them why you won’t go into distribution of Nollywood. But they told us to direct the question to the Ministry of Finance. So we had to go to the Minister, and urge them to speed up the process.”
Gabosky, who seems to have also applied for the IDF was optimistic that the issue will be attended to.
“There are four groups to be interviewed for the IDF, and they are about interviewing the fourth group before subjecting the whole applications to a review. That is what has been happening. Without going there, we wouldn’t know because nobody answers their calls, nobody briefs us, and the movie industry stakeholders are so disorganised. We do not have a single forum where we would invite somebody and say we want to know this or that. We don’t even have a platform with which we can invite for example, the Copyright Commission or any other government agency to answer questions regarding their stewardship.”
Among the delegation are Northern Nollywood icon Hajia Aisha Halilu, screen diva Joke Silva, singer Dapo Oyebanjo, aka Dbanj, Hon. Desmond Elliot, President of Association of Movie Producers, AMP, Ralph Nwadike, past Chairman of Marketers Association Norbert Ajaegbu and notable Executive Producer Charles Igwe.
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