By Vanessa Obioha
As part of his administration’s goals to give practitioners in the creative sector an opportunity to compete favourably with their contemporaries across the globe in filmmaking, the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, recently unveiled its Creative Lagos Initiative.
In partnership with Del-York Academy, the government is sponsoring a set of trainees that will undergo training in the creative field.
A firm believer of public-private partnerships, Sanwo-Olu, who joined the event virtually, said that he is convinced that “this is a journey that all of you will appreciate and a journey that will open up the entire world unto your palms; a journey that will make you a globally competitive professional in the creative industry”.
He also announced that the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture would be launching some other products that will help the creative, entertainment and tourism side of the industry in addition to other ongoing support for practitioners in the sector.
The Commissioner for the ministry, Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf, who attended the event, lamented that too many African-themed movies are shot outside of the continent, outside the reach of the African themselves which should be the primary beneficiaries of the attendant economics of these productions.
She explained that the rationale behind the Lagos State Creative Industry Initiative (LACI), a concept initiated by the ministry, is to make Lagos Africa’s entertainment and creative industry capital and to ensure it takes its place in the African continent as the undisputed centre for outsourcing creative talent into the global entertainment industry talent pool.
The President of DelYork Academy, Linus Idahosa, lauded the vision of the administration in his remarks.
“We believe that Lagos State can become the human capital and base for the creative industry across the country and we believe that the seed has been sown among the students who are being sponsored,” he said.
The Creative Lagos Initiative will see participants being trained in the field of directing, cinematography, acting and in all the processes of film production from script to screen.
