Nigerian professional dancer, Kafayat Shafau, popularly known as “Kaffy,” on Sunday urged the government at all levels to further explore the creative industry for wealth creation.

According to her, other sectors of the creative industry such as dance and fashion should be upscaled for economic benefit, as focus has been more on film and music.

Kaffy, known for her Guinness World Records win for “Longest Dance Party,” at the Nokia Silverbird Danceathon in 2006, made the call while speaking in Lagos.

She said Nigeria, with 60 per cent of its population as youths was at an advantage but needed to channel the youth’s energy toward positive ventures like embracing dance.

Kaffy said, “I want the government to look into the creative sector, I think they are still biased more into films. There are other areas like dance. Dance is a major export. We can monetise dance from the educational system, the health and advertising sectors and more. From the health sector, I have dancers who work as fitness trainers and physiotherapists, deriving benefits from it. For people who have cognitive disorders, dance is also recommended. Dance is still the reason we are embracing music, dance is used in film production, so, dance is sitting at the centre of all industries. One of our problems is poverty alleviation and Nigeria is youth-based, talking about over 60 per cent population of active youths but also inactive when it comes to economic build-up. Dance within the purview of the creative industry is capable of liberating Nigerian youths from poverty.’’

Kaffy urged the government to increase budgetary allocation for the creative industry and provide the enabling environment for practitioners to thrive.

“Government has the power to support us, make policies that will make institutions be forced to make a quota of their corporate social responsibility channelled toward the creative industry. There are many things the government can do beyond giving us money,” she said.

The dancer advised that to tackle the falling standard of education, the government should explore dance to teach in schools.

According to her, dance is known to help children comprehend better.

She stated, “Nigerian school system needs to adopt the creative industry right now because our educational system is in shambles. Many of these kids are just going to school to mark attendance and the world has changed from the archaic old system. Many of us are not doing what we studied in school. The educational system should be revamped to what we need in society. Dance, an aspect of the creative industry, is known to help children comprehend better. This should be in our curriculum.’’

Commenting on the pan-African Afropolis Carnival, the Lagos State government would be celebrating later in the year, Kaffy commended the state for aligning with the creative industry drive.

She added, “I am glad that the Lagos State government is gradually waking up to fully explore the potential the industry has to offer with the emergence of Afropolis. It is an avenue to showcase that we can preserve our culture with different forms of creativity. Creatives can showcase their talents in Afropolis and get people to engage them. This is what we need more money to be put into.’’

(NAN)