Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate, on Saturday promised to increase funds for arts and liberalise the process of its acquisition once elected in the forthcoming elections.

Mr Abubakar made the promise during a special roundtable discussion with Nigeria’s creative culture and innovative industry stakeholders in Lagos.

The presidential candidate acknowledged that the creative industry was a vital industry capable of immense wealth creation and generating huge employment opportunities.

Highlighting the industry’s challenges, Mr Abubakar said it should not be toyed with as it had been identified as the second most important sector after agriculture.

“The way forward is to increase funds for the arts and liberalise the process of acquiring that fund; if you give me the opportunity, I will do it because it is essential.

“I reject direct CBN intervention and encourage the private sector to be part of this, the government cannot develop all the funds needed.

“I look forward to a close collaboration with you on how we can develop the sector and exploit its potential, it is a multi-billion income-creating sector.

“If we work together, we can make it, I look forward to another meeting before the elections to agree on some modalities on how things will be done,” he said.

Also, Ifeanyi Okowa, PDP vice presidential candidate, said all requests made by the practitioners in the creative sector would be properly articulated, just as promised by Mr Abubakar.

Mr Okowa disclosed that the newly built Film Village in Asaba would be launched by December.

He said there were plans to ensure that practitioners in the creative industry ran it, as the government would not be in the best position to do that.

He urged Nigerians to turn out en mass to vote during the forthcoming elections in February.

Earlier, Efe Omorogbe, a talent manager and music executive, said the major challenges confronting the music industry were piracy and Nigerians’ unwillingness to pay music royalties.

He said less than 10 per cent of music consumers paid royalties which was not encouraging.

(NAN)