Intervention Fund and Project ACT Nollywood

President Jonathan and Fiberesima, Actors Guild of Nigeria President

AGAIN, the Federal Government [recently] in Abuja walked the talk as regards the special film intervention fund approved by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013.

Less than two months after it released the names of 32 movie production companies that would receive the Film Production Fund (FPF), one of the three components of the N3 billion Presidential Intervention Fund for the Nigerian movie industry managed under a scheme called Project ACT Nollywood, the government through the Federal Ministry of Finance has commenced the process of disbursing funds to beneficiaries who satisfied the requirements for accessing the funds that should best be called a production grant.

26 out of the 32 movie production companies have entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Government. They would any moment now start getting alerts of sums ranging from N2 million and N15 million. However the amount each of the production house will get depends on the magnitude of the film project that was proposed.

Also, the 26 firms who were all present at the MoU signing ceremony, according to the Project Director, Project ACT Nollywood, Dr Supo Olusi, are the first beneficiaries of the production fund component of the grant. The other two components of the funds, are the Capacity Building Fund (CBF) and the Infrastructural Development Fund (IDF) and already the Ministry of Finance, which manages the fund in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, have disbursed grants to motion picture practitioners comprising members of the Arewa Filmmakers Association, the Directors Guild of Nigeria, Actors Guild, the Nigerian Society of Cinematographers, the Nigerian Society of Editors and the Iyen Agbonifo led Creative Designers Guild of Nigeria amongst others, under the Capacity Building Fund (CBF) component of the fund whose implementation started earlier.

The practitioners were awarded various grants to undertake training courses in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the USA under the CBF, which Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu once clarified was in two-parts--training and skill acquisition for practitioners of the film industry and provision of grants to existing Nigerian-owned private institutes that offer training courses, programmes and technical certification in the movie industry. While the training part of the Capacity Building Fund is valued at N150 million, the second part is also worth N150 million.

 Though the training component is still ongoing, it is the production fund component of the fund that is on the radar now and practitioners are happy that officials of the Project ACT Nollywood are walking the talk. One of the grantees, a prominent filmmaker said he never 'believed that the fund will ever be disbursed". In his words "I almost believed a colleague who told me that the money would be diverted for elections or they would use it to fight terrorism because giving us money to make films is the least of governments headache now. But this signing ceremony is real. I can't wait to hit location. President Jonathan and the Minister of Finance and the dutiful officials of Project ACT have won a special place in our hearts", he enthused.

At the MoU signing ceremony held inside the conference room of the Ministry and attended by prominent filmmakers like Kunle Afolayan, Joe Ubaka, Steve Gukas, Desmond Elliot and the veteran television and motion picture producer and director Chris Obi Rapu, Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, stressed the commitment of the Federal Government to using the creative industries as vehicle to boost the nation's economy. The Minister who revealed that she loves the creative industry acknowledged that the industry had so far created no fewer than 200,000 direct jobs and about one million indirect jobs. She stated that the industry has the capacity to contribute more to the economy if given the right support. " The Project ACT Nollywood programme is very dear to Mr. President. From what I understand, the issues of intellectual property and the issue of quality and so on are paramount and that is why the President felt that your industry should be supported. I think you all know that right from time President Jonathan has always believed in the power of the creative industries whether it is through employment that you have created for young people or the power of your messages. So that is why this is important to us. We are starting small but it is better to start a reasonable and small way and see if it works and then try and take it off from there" the Minister said.

While reiterating governments resolve to support the industry in realizing its potential as a significant creator of employment and contributor to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Minister urged practitioners of the creative industry to adopt a cohesive approach in the organization of the industry. " If we can have a cohesive approach from the creative industry, it will help us more to help you. One of the problems or issues we have is that we often have a little bit of a contentious approach. If we can work together it will also not make us to be afraid to come and help you. Because when you start with one group, one other group will say it is their group you should be talking to. So one cohesive approach will help us" she noted.

Earlier Dr. Olusi had explained that the amount was being disbursed as grants to industry operators who met the benchmark for accessing the money. He clarified that "the FPF contributes to commercially viable film projects with grants of up to N15 million even though a small number of film projects may be considered for higher grants" He also disclosed that there is a provision in the MoUs that stipulates that all grantees must produce movies from the grant within three months after the due date in the MoU. This as he said, is 'to ensure that they deliver and where they don't deliver, we will go after them and the MoU which they have signed is clear on how we will achieve that," he said while adding that about N215 million will be distributed among the 26 production companies. "What is left will be distributed to those in another batch" he said.

Source: Shaibu Husseini, All Africa