By JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday hailed Nigerian TV and film content producers for their impressive work in deepening the industry, but challenged them to do more to tell the Nigerian story and do more of co-production to enrich their content.
According to a statement signed by his SA , Segun Adeyemi the Minister made the commendation in Cannes, France, where he is at the head of the Nigerian delegation to the ongoing 2017 MIPTV, the biggest forum for TV and online content producers in the world.
He said he was quite impressed with the presence of such Nigerian content producers as Iroko, Aforevo and Consolidated Media Associates Ltd., owners of Soundcity and ontv, SpiceTV, Access24 and onMAX, at the global forum, hence his decision to personal visit their stands to encourage and support them.
On the importance of the forum, Alhaji Mohammed described MIPTV as ”a shopping mall for content and formats for channels,” adding: ”The idea of this MIPTV is to create a forum for the media and the entertainment world, especially the television and films, to meet other stakeholders including content producers and channel owners in an attempt to further deepen the industry.”
The Minister said his delegation, which includes the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information, Senator Sulaiman Adokwe, and the Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, will leverage on their attendance of the forum to enrich the digitization of television broadcasting in Nigeria.
”We must see how we can build contacts and relationship that will enrich content production when we go fully digital,” he said, disclosing his plan to visit other African countries to exchange ideas on digitization.
As part of his activities at the forum on Wednesday, the Minister was taken on a guided tour of the sprawling venue of the MIPTV, during which he visited the stands of notable Nigerian content producers like Iroko and Aforevo, as well as those of Bollywood and Zee World.
Earlier on Tuesday, at a dinner hosted by the NBC for members of the Nigerian delegation, the Minister called for self-regulation by Nigerian content producers.
He said they should appreciate the fact that films are not just to entertain but also to educate, hence the need for them to get ‘wholesome products’.
