Creative Economy Minister aims to give Kannywood international visibility.

Creative Economy Minister aims to give Kannywood international visibility.

The Nigeria’s Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa has promised to bring about a noticeable development that will attract global visibility in the Kannywood Industry.

Hannatu disclosed this at a meeting with the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Abdullahi Adamu in his office on Thursday.

The Minister who was joined by selected members of the Kannywood Industry said the President Bola Tinubu holds them in high esteem for the role played during his campaign and the administration will do everything possible to support them.

Kannywood is the Hausa-language film industry dominant in the Northern part of  Nigeria and it is based in Kano.

Musawa noted that the film industry has a great influence in the society and she will not look down on such as a Minister of Culture and Creative Economy

“I would like to thank all the people from Kannywood. Those of us from the North understood the effects that Kannywood has. It was very important to the then candidate of APC, Bola Tinubu and now President Bola Tinubu. So, Kannywood played their part, you really made the difference in being able to  galvanize the electorate in a very very surprising way. 

” I certainly look forward to working with each and every one of you knowing that invariably you will be able to teach me a lot about your work.

“Films have a very great effect, so the power that you hold in your hands is not something that one could just wash away.” She said.

She also noted that one of the key roles of the ministry apart from trying to project Nigeria to the outside world in a way to reposition it for greatness is also to give back to the nation.

“The  ministry has been created, I mean the Ministry of Creative Economy. What that means is that we are going to play our parts in giving back and adding to the GDP of this nation and you each are going to play a part in it. And we are going to do that insha’allah (by God’s grace).

“Collaboration is very important because the interest of the world is on Nigeria. Our filmmakers, they just need our support. Our musicians weather from the North, Eeast, West, anywhere you are, literally the whole world is looking at you so you just need that little support. 

“So we are going to look at how we can collaborate with people from the East and even from the Western world. We will certainly look into that. And what is very important as well is for us to see how we can upgrade our productions. You have such great ideas. 

“This Ministry is a ministry of innovation and ideas but I think what is important is the upgrade of our productions. I want to see Kannywood placed in a setting whereby your movies will hold weight in America, your movies will hold weight  in India and especially in Asia because if you look at  maybe the Nollywood sector which is very appealing to the Western world.  We can collaborate with people, a great audience may be in the Asian nations. Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar and other great nations. 

The Minister added that the industry comprises great and talented individuals and with up-to-date training, they will be able to compete favorably with their counterparts all over the world.

“And of course we talk about training, it is extremely important. In this room, we have some of the most talented people that we have in the North, but there are more of them in Nigeria that just need that opportunity. So training those in the state, in this room and those ones will make them to be able to compete at the highest level and of course everything we talk about is all about funding.

 “Part of my work here is to create a way for foreign investments into your sector,  so that you are able to really operate in a better way. So I promise you it’s something we are going to look into and of course  the film resource centre is quite important as well because this is where we will be able to get the reports and get the mechanisms together that are required to literally operate at that optimum level.” She promised. 

Reacting, the National Chairman of APC, Abdullahi Ganduje said the creation of the Ministry of Culture and Creative Economy is a promise fulfilled by President Bola Tinubu and with Hannatu Musawa as a minister, the ministry is in a safe hand.

“During the electioneering campaign, we organized members of Kannywood to promote our our presidential candidate, now Mr President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in Kano. 

“We organized a concert where various campaign songs were composed and delivered. The hall was filled with people from all over Nigeria. And I think that was a way of Nollywood and Kannywood  promoting Bola Tinubu. 

“During that time, he  promised to create a new ministry and a minister. He promised to provide an enabling environment for the promotion of Nollywood and Kannywood. Also to promote Kannywood to the highest level possible, not only in Nigeria but worldwide.”

“I think we can make Kannywood an industry that is flourishing. They require an institution, a resource centre, and also they require equipment for production. They require manpower development and they require a complete enabling environment so that this industry will be born again and I think from today with the honourable minister of culture, Kannywood will indeed be born again.” Ganduje stated.