Obi Asika, the convener of Omniverse and founder of Storm 360, said Nigeria is missing out on multi-billion revenue from the creative industry due to lack of infrastructure like Netflix and Amazon and lack of world-class venues. Asika also believes that the creative industry can create 10 million jobs if the government provides "dead" stadiums and other dying entertainment infrastructure.
He said this in an interview with Arise TV about the creation of the new Ministry of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy.
The decline in revenue prompted the government to establish new ministries to help the government raise more money to meet its financial obligations.
Asika said: “There are about 2 sectors in the creative industries: fashion and music, art and culture, performing arts, theater dance, software technology, advertising and broadcasting. So the creative economy is huge. In terms of infrastructure, we have 400 universities and 40 stadiums in major cities, but what needs to happen is that those stadiums are old stadiums and the government has a lot of dead assets that it can provide.
"Regarding the tours, I just want to correct one thing that we are not taking all the money. When you travel internationally, you make money internationally. The money taken from Nigeria is because we have not built enough domestic platforms.
The Storm 360 boss said that industry players and the government should promote investment in streaming platforms and construction of venues and theaters, among other things, to avoid capital flight. He said the lack of infrastructure gave Netflix, Amazon and Spotify an unfair advantage over the domestic market.
Asika said: "So if you want to stream back, you have Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix and Amazon, yes, some money goes out, but of course some money comes into the economy, because without that investment we cannot create a product.
"But we need to encourage the best domestic investments, domestic capital, banks and private equity and equity banks to set up offices, build more production space, build more facilities and more industrial enabling facilities.
"It's endless. From art galleries to light rooms, stadiums, performance spaces and production spaces. After all, this creative economy has the potential to bring about 10 million jobs to this economy by 2030. I am sure that the new minister will work with the leaders of the field. Cooperation with other ministers, especially the Minister of Finance, Communication and Digital Economy.
