LALONG POISED TO HARNESS POTENTIALS OF CREATIVE INDUSTRY ON THE PLATEAU

Plateau State Microfinance Development Agency (PLASMIDA)

has on Thursday in Jos engaged players within the creative industry  to ensure there is a platform to organise the sector within the state for maximum productivity and growth.

The Director General of PLASMIDA, Mr Hagai Gutap said the essence of the session was to bring together the different players in the industry so as to have a unified body and structure for easy access to funding and better coordination of their activities for a far reaching effects

Gutap adds that in Nigeria the history of creative industry cannot be complete if you remove the name of Plateau, he recalls that " Plateau state has been at the forefront of the creative industry, even in the Nollywood, the first film was shot here in Jos. Plateau State has the comparative advantage, we have talents, and we have talents that have excelled very well on the Plateau who are doing exceedingly very well in Nigeeia today".

 

He reveals that the State Government wants to capitalise on these gains looking at the volumes of creatives we have here on the Plateau adding that " we want to strengthen their capacity to ensure that they are able to leverage in their skills to be able to contribute meaningfully to the growth of the economy of Plateau State and they cannot achieve that without us giving them the right platform and that is why we want to create and establish what we call The Plateau State Creative Hub whereby it will serve as a spring board for developing all the creatives on the Plateau and also linking then up to all the professional advises and capacity enhancement".

The hub will be able to have a shared facility where all of them will have a state of the art facilities that will enable them to produce what they have and market it very well. So we believe that the hub will be able to do all that, Gutap further reveals that the hub will provide platform for networking, marketing, training and promotion of creative contents in the State.

Over the years, entertainers have lost revenue and opportunities to grow, due to “individualized operations in the system,” Haggai said at a meeting with creative talents in Jos. “But we want to change that, and give you value for your time and money,” he said.

In his words, “Everywhere in the world, Nigerian creative content is patronized but how much value are we getting from that? Money, infrastructure, equipment, skills, promotion and exposure among others limit creativity but we are going to address that.

“There are various value chains involved in the production process. Synergy is therefore needed to be successful. As individuals, marketing and tracking of revenue for published content is difficult but as a recognized platform, distribution, networking and even financing is easy. We must therefore create a formidable platform that will guarantee financial institutions, development partners and the likes to trust us.”

PLASMIDA is a government agency. But the platform will be owned by creatives, while the agency plays facilitation and regulatory roles.

Haggai said, “Our role is to guide you through the process. We are going to provide the enabling environment for entertainers to thrive here without having to travel out.

“Lagos is believed to be the last bus stop for marketing but with the potentials I have seen here, we can be better than them especially through digital distribution channels.

“Entertainers from Lagos should be coming to us not we going to them. Our weather and topography are the best. We have the film institute, film corporation and NTA college. These are advantages we can capitalize on to grow our potentials. Let us start by building a database. From here we will look at formalizing our existence to earn the confidence of investors. With this we will be able to seek partnerships that will give us global competitiveness.”

The interest for Mr. Haggai who hatched the idea is to see entertainers thrive in their business.

“I want the era of starting a creative endeavor and dropping out to stop. We don’t care who you are or where you come from. We want to find ways to develop the system,” he said.

Members of the proposed hub will be grouped into clusters based on their areas of expertise, said Haggai. The meeting held by the PLASMIDA boss and with entertainers aimed to identify the different sectors in the ecosystem toward building a database for easy partnership. By year end, series of entertainment programmes might start in Jos, the capital of Plateau State where Psquare, MI, Ice Prince, Jesse Jagz and among others, Mode Nine started.

“We’ll meet time to time to discuss our successes and challenges, as well as carry out a skills gap analysis. From the analysis we will know the kind of interventions to bring in.

“We will attach you to international mentors to groom you to become outstanding. By year end if this platform is up, we will organize a creative forum, exhibitions, shows and competitions to encourage quality among you,” said the Official.

At the meeting on Thursday, veteran rappers Terry Tha Rapman and Seemo Da Black Czar alongside singers Saksolo, Ezra Jinang and Ernest Dades were in attendance. Comedians Julius, Funny-G and popular actors also attended.