TNSNollywood filmmaker, Zik Zulu Okafor has predicted that despite the current economic downturn Nigeria is witnessing, the Nigerian film industry will boom in 2018.
Speaking with HVP, Okafor said:
I see more cinema houses springing up as a result of what the government is doing presently. There will be bigger movies and bigger revenue emanating from the movie industry. Nollywood will contribute significantly to the GDP of this country. In terms of our contribution to the GDP, it dropped this year. But I’m hopeful that it will raise next year.
Nollywood needs a lot of training and government can still help in this area. Government need to support Nollywood with training facilities.
He added:
It’s raising the bar with many quality and commercially successful movies such The Wedding Party 2, ’76, Okafor’s Law, A Trip to Jamaica, Olobiri among others. Also, the cinema houses are expanding and we now have more screening centers. Before now, we had only few screening centers. The industry is on the move.
Zik Zulu Okafor went on to praise the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed and the efforts to take the industry forward:
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed is one of the best ministers we have had in recent times in terms of paying attention to creative industry with quality thinking, quality observation and quality results.
The minister has indeed inspired the industry and given us hope. He’s working to see how the BoI can bring down the interest rate to 9 percent for the NollyFund. Indeed, government participation is very fantastic in the outgoing year. We have never had the kind of interest government had shown in the industry as we are having at the moment. It’s about laying proper foundation and improving on it. I think this administration is doing well in that area.
