The Central Bank of Nigeria says it is creating huge opportunities for creative Nigerians youths to access credits and bank loans to enable them to grow their various businesses. The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele who stated this yesterday, at the Creative Nigeria Summit, assured youths in the creative industry that they will benefit from a N22 billion intervention fund set aside to support the struggle to reposition the economy and diversify it.
He explained that the N22bn made available, under the Creative Industries and Financing Initiative (CIFI), would help the nation claw back lost opportunities and create employment in the entertainment industry, mostly dominated by the youths.
According to him,
“Our population of almost 200 million people is growing at close to 2.8 percent annually, relative to our economy which grew at close to two percent in 2018.
“Again, close to 60 percent of our population are under the age of 35, indicating that we have a youthful population that will need to be engaged; and more importantly, our youth unemployment rate stands at close to 36 percent.
“With sadness, many of our youths graduate from universities but with no industries to employ them. Rather than roam about, some of these youths are unleashing their creative talents in creating jobs, not only for themselves; but also for others through the music, movie, fashion and IT skills.
“CBN and Bankers Committee believe that the little we can do is to create opportunities for these youths to access credit and bank loans to grow their businesses.
“We cannot afford to let the talents of our youthful population go to waste, as it would portend great dangers for the progress of our nation. Efforts must, therefore, be made to harness the innovative and creative energy of our youths, towards enabling them to create productive ventures that will support improved wealth and job creation in Nigeria,” he said.
Reiterating that CBN and the Bankers Committee intend to support this creative venture with N22 billion of initial funds, he added that part of the efforts in the music and movie industry will be to support young entrepreneurs in the development of digital content at the park.
“Our CIFI initiative will also enable the development of distribution outlets such as cinemas and music platforms, which will help improve the reach of the content developed by our young entrepreneurs.
“We intend to support the development of over 50 additional cinemas from our current capacity of 48 cinemas nationwide. The cost structure of these cinemas will be lean, in order to make movies affordable to a large section of Nigerians.
“These measures, which will be implemented over a five-year period, will increase the contribution of our movie industry to GDP, from one to three percent," he added.
