The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), Dr. Chidia Maduekwe, asserted that the corporation would not cease to embrace international partnerships and collaborations in order to deliver on its mandate as it is saddled with the responsibility of the preservation of the cultural heritage of Nigeria through Sound Archive and the National Film Video. This affirmation was made during the meeting with the delegation from Institut National de L”Audiovisuel (National Audio-Visual Institute) – INA, France.
Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), established in 1979 under Decree No.61 of 1979, is the largest film agency in Nigeria. The corporation is a Federal Government parastatal and is being supervised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture. The NFC is able to lay a foundation to develop a reliable and sustainable film industry and cinema culture in the country. The activities of the corporation have enabled it to contribute to Nigeria’s socio-economic development and currently, procedures to transform the Corporation to a Film Commission in relation to the African Union charter on communication and audiovisual is in progress.
NFC sustains local and international partnerships to build capacity.
Dr. Maduekwe stated that the INA visited the corporation on need assessment which makes the corporation look forward to obtaining support and assistance on the national audio-visual archiving, preservation project and digitization of NFC. It was further stated that NFC has been sustaining its solid commitment to aid efficient utilization of local and international partnerships for the purpose of building capacity and developing programs and projects with the evolution of recent technologies, preservation, film production techniques and archival practices.
The Federal Government of Nigeria also gives recognition to the great contributions of film archiving to national development with the observation that the creative industry and film sector tremendously supports the growth of the national economy and should be showered with deserving attention. Also, to protect the rich cultural heritage of the nation, there has to be sole dependence on the capacity of digitization and online digital space so as to create awareness across borders.
NFC aims at building a National Repository for Nigeria.
MD of NFC further states that the time for the industry to pull resources together for the protection and preservation of the audio-visual heritage of Nigeria is the present moment. It was said that culture, politics, economy and history, as the heritage of Nigeria, must be efficiently secured, preserved, digitized and archived. Currently, one of the pressing strategic development plans for the film industry is to build a National Repository for Nigeria with high technology at the National Film Video and Sound Archive; it also focuses on building human capacity through the National Film Institute (NFI).
Cultural Attache, French Embassy – Lagos, Mr. Christopher Picot, spoke at the meeting in Jos at NFC’s headquarters, pledging the commitment of the French Government and its institutions towards immense contribution to the development of the audio-visual sector of Nigeria. Picot said that the need assessment visit by the Institut National de L”Audiovisuel (National Audio-visual Institute) to the NFC was necessitated by the bilateral cultural treaty and the audio-visual cooperation that exists between Nigeria and France.
Picot expresses optimism after conclusion of need assessment.
The two day needs assessment visit was done by Sarah Vandergeerde, Jean-Claude Macik and Christopher Picot – who was the leader. The team of Institut National de L”Audiovisuel (National Audio-visual Institute) were thrilled by the experiences and outcome of the working sessions and discussions with the NFC management, staff and students of the NFI. In addition, Mr. Picot expressed optimism of massive assistance and support for the NFC, considering the assessment of its challenges and current state of its facilities.
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