By HENRY AKUBUIRO
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has corrected the misconception that he said the Federal Government would ban the production of Nigerian movies and music abroad.
Several media organisations had reported the Minister as saying this last weekend when he visited the headquarters of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) in Lagos.
Speaking yesterday at a news briefing at the end of the two day Creative Industry Financing conference with the theme “Financing the Film, Television and Music Industries,” held at Eko Hotels, the minister clarified what he said about the amendment to the NBC Code to discourage production of Nigerian movies and music abroad.
He said, “At that meeting, I said that I will work to amend the NBC code to ensure that if a product is designated a Nigerian product; it must be produced in Nigeria. I didn’t say that henceforth, all music and films will be produced in Nigeria.
“All I said was that if a programme is designated as a Nigerian content programme, we will amend the code to ensure that it is produced in Nigeria. I didn’t say I’ll ban the production of Nigerian movies and videos overseas,” he reiterated.
He added that, “If the law says that a programme shall have 60 per cent Nigerian content, the producer could not go ahead to shoot such outside the country for Nigerian viewers.”