Not less than $13.2billion is being missed on a yearly basis as part of the supposed revenue to the federal government’s coffer in the area of arts, creative and cultural sectors, a report from the World Economic Forum of 2021 has shown.
The report also showed that all eleven creative and cultural sectors combined generated $3,500 billion in revenue, about 4.8% of the entire World Gross Domestic Product (GDP), adding that it is a progression from the 3% revenue in the 2019 statistics.
National President, Association of Professional Creative Artists and Designers in Nigeria (APCAD), Chief Kingsley Okafor, presented the statistics in Abuja yesterday at the 10th anniversary of Great Ekenhuan Alumni Association, Abuja.
Daily Trust reports that Ekenhuan is a place in Edo State, where one of the campuses that houses Departments of Theatre Arts, Fine and Applied Arts and Mass Communications of University of Benin is located.
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Presenting a keynote lecture on how to create wealth in the visual arts, Okafor called on the federal government to pay equal attention to the sector since it has already carved out a whole ministry from the ministry of information for the sector.
“Nigeria presently misses up to $13.2bn in annual revenue opportunity from the arts industry due to lack of investments and right policies that can drive the sector. Data from other nations show that the art industry can contribute anywhere between 2-10% to the country’s GDP,” Okafor revealed.
