The Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Mrs Catherine Colonna, has met with Nigerian Creative artistes in the Emerging Technologies Ecosystem recently in Abuja.
The meeting stems off Paris’ recent launch of the Africa Creation Forum, on October 6 to 8, 2023, which convened about 323 African creatives and 80 French companies, in the gaming, eSports, eGames, Animation, Film and extended reality (XR).
Minister Colonna, reiterated France’s intention to accelerate its support to Nigeria’s creative and cultural industries (CCIs), through investment in information and youth.
Hence, the minister’s signing of an 100m euros grant in a collaborative project with the FG, via I-DICE, during her visit to Abuja, on November 3, 2023, to support to Nigeria’s CCI.
An initiative of the federal government, I-DICE focused on the empowering youths in the digital technology and creative industries through the building of vocational centers and capacity building.
The 618m dollars initiative sees the FG through the BOI contribute 45m dollars, African Development Bank (AfDB) 170m dollars, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) 70m dollars, and French Agency for Development (AFD) contribute 100m euros to structure the creative industry.
he programme aims to train 2 million young Nigerians, aged 15 to 35 years, 40 per cent of whom are women, and deployed from across all 36 states, in order to improve their employability, in the digital and creative industries.
At the meeting, ten culture and creative industry entrepreneurs, who were beneficiaries of the French Embassy’s support to the local creative industries, spoke of their various projects and their challenges.
Among the creative entrepreneurs major challenge is the lack of funding and resources to build capacities offer in their various fields, particularly, the animation industry; the need of funding to expand and create commercially viable projects, in the area of lesser popular Stop Motion Animation industry, and the support to enhance quality fabric for sustainable fashion and design production in Nigeria.
The meeting ended with the minister’ commendation of the creatives on their achievements, reiterating her interest and openness to newer/fresher ideas arising from their ongoing creations.
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