By Charles Ajunwa
The Director General of National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, has said that the Word’s Handicrafts Day should be used to reflect on World’s Craft Council and foster economic development of crafts through crafts-related activities in all regions.
Runsewe, who made the call at this year’s World Handicraft Day in Abuja, said since his assumption of office as the President of the World Craft Council, African Region, he had continued to work towards integrating key players in the Arts and Crafts sector towards promoting the best of African’s arts and craft products and popularising them all over the
The NCAC boss said he has made INAC Expo a global fiesta where stakeholders all over the world meet to network and exchange views and experiences on global best practices in arts and crafts.
“Apart from robust and strategic engagement with foreign missions in Nigeria to create the required synergy beneficial to all, we have also led advocacy campaigns in South Africa, Ghana, Botswana, Burkina Faso and so on,” Runsewe stated.
He reiterated the need for government to increase its funding to the arts and crafts sector as very little capital was needed by practitioners for takeoff, adding that oil is good but exhaustible while arts and crafts are inexhaustible.
The keynote speaker and former lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Dr. Cornel Agim, who delivered lecture on ‘Economic Importance of Crafts’, enumerated the economic value of arts and crafts to include; creation of employment, creating new skills, building and amplifying the economic harmony through cultural exchanges as well as playing a major role in generating and sustaining a globally engaged economy.
Other resource persons who spoke at the event said it would be shocking to note that most of the things that people seek in other countries were available in Nigeria, thus underscoring the need to promote domestic tourism.
Participants at the occasion were drawn from selected secondary schools within the FCT, stakeholders in the industry, media practitioners and the members of the diplomatic community. The World Craft Council is organised into five regions, namely Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America and Africa.
Guests were treated to a musical display by the Performing Arts Department of the National Council for Arts and Culture.
