Goodluck Jonathan The other day I talked about stimulating production of goods and services in all sectors so that our Naira earned in Nigeria can be spent on products made in Nigeria so that our expenditure feeds our economic expansion. However another goal of this stimulation is to boost exports. And in boosting exports we do not have... to stick to the traditional export oriented industries. We have to use what we have to get what we want. There are many untapped avenues for generating exports in Nigeria and we need to put these opportunities to good use. For instance, I have travelled on official visits to a number of countries and have been amazed by the response I get from people of various racial back grounds to Nollywood movies. Africans and Americans; Caribbean and other island nations; Europeans as well as Asians tell me how much they love Nollywood movies. This interest alerted me to the fact that there is a market for Nigerian home videos the world over and I have directed the Minister of Foreign Affairs to ask our envoys to work with leading lights of Nollywood to help them break into the market of their host country. If Hollywood and Bollywood can generate several hundreds of billions of US dollars for their country's economy then we must support our own home grown movie industry to do likewise. Not stopping there, I have directed the Ministers of Information and Communications and Culture to remove any impediment in the way of the industry so that the intellectual property rights of producers, directors, actors and studios are protected and they enjoy the fruits of their labour which will give them the incentive to make more and better movies. In growing Nigeria's economy we must be creative and look into all possibilities. GEJ |