Federal Government Opens Online Application For Nollywood Development Fund.

THE Federal Government has announced the opening of applications for Nollywood capacity development fund with entries commencing from July to December on the website www.projectactnollywood.com.ng.

In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister for the economy, Mr Paul Nwabuiko, the administration announced that “at 12.00 p.m on Monday, July 22, 2013, the website for the N300 million capacity building fund for the Nigerian film industry will be launched and activated”.

“This signals the commencement of the historic fund, as corporate and individual practitioners in various aspects of movie craft and production can apply for various specified grants under the fund to boost their skills and capacity, the release noted. It added that, “the Capacity Building Fund is the first part of the N3 billion support fund for Nollywood which was pledged by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Capacity Building Fund is the first of a series of initiatives planned under Project ACT Nollywood. It is made up of two components.

The statement explained that, “The first is a Training Fund of N150 million dedicated to training and skills acquisition for Nollywood Practitioners along the entire value chain of Nigeria’s movie industry. This includes Scriptwriting, Directing, Production and Production Design, Special Effects, Lighting, Sound, HD Techniques, Acting, Cinematography, Make-Up, Editing.

The second component is the Capacity Development Fund which is also worth N150 million, and will give grants to existing Nigerian-owned private institutes that offer training courses, programmes and technical certification in the movie industry”.

The statement added that interested institutes must show evidence they were registered before 1st January 2013 and be competent enough to train according to global best practices on a sustainable basis.

Speaking on the development, the Coordinating Minister was quoted as saying that the establishment of the fund underscores government’s commitment to supporting Nollywood in recognition of the film industry’s contributions to the economy and projecting the country.

“This is the first of the initiatives planned under Project Act Nollywood. And it shows that the President is keeping his word to the industry and to Nigerians. Nollywood deserves this support because it has added value to the economy by creating jobs and acting as an ambassador to the country,

projecting Nigeria to many parts of the world that hitherto knew little or nothing about the country”, the minister said.

Source Tribune.