Hannatu Musawa, the minister of arts, culture and creative economy, has granted a licensing waiver for investors looking to establish community cinemas in Nigeria.
In a statement released on Monday, Husseini Shaibu, the executive director of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), revealed that the decision aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s agenda of improving business conditions and the minister’s goal of fostering investment in the creative industry.
Shaibu said the waiver will impact the cinema exhibition sector, particularly for local content.
He said the board has already granted provisional approval to an investor to pilot a community cinema project for one year.
He added that, if successful, this will pave the way for broader adoption of the model and further incentivize investment in the sector.
“This and other incentives the minister has promised will no doubt fuel the expansion of Cinema screens and promote wider screening of Nollywood films at the local box office,” he said.
In addition to the licensing waiver, the Board is proposing a reduction in exhibition and distribution license fees.
According to Shaibu, these measures are designed to create a more favourable environment for investors and stimulate growth in the film industry.
“We have already reduced duration or what they call the come back time for film classification to a maximum of 48 hours for full feature films and same day classification for dramatized short content (skits) and musical videos,” he added.
“We have also introduced online submissions to make things easier for filmmakers and content creators”.