The Federal Government on Thursday accepted an offer by the Japanese Government to assist Nigeria to develop capacity in production of Nigerian animation and children’s films.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at a meeting with Mr Sadamotu Kusaoke, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plempotentiary, Embassy of Japan in Nigeria.
Mohammed said the government also welcomed the offer by the Japanese Government to accept Nigerian movies in Japanese film houses, in particular at the annual Tokyo International Film Festival.
He said there was dearth of animation and children’s films in Nigeria and the offer would go a long way to develop the sub-sector.
The minister noted that developing animation films would curtail the trend where many children watched films that were not appropriate for their age.
He added that Nigeria being a diverse country of many cultures had abundant folklore that could be developed into animation films for local consumption and exportation.
According to him, the Nigerian film industry is the third largest producer of films in the world and government is prepared to develop the sector.
The Minister assured that both governments would work out the modalities for the cooperation and cultural exchange.
He suggested that the Japanese Government should send experts to the country to train Nigeria producers in the field of animation and children’s films.
Mohammed said Nigeria had abundance of talents with imagination on animation and children’s films, but the challenge was the lack of technology for its development.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister seized the opportunity of the meeting to explain to the envoy the economic and developmental programmes of the Federal Government.
Earlier, Kusaoke had said that Japan was prepared to look beyond economic relations with Nigeria and expand exchange in culture and in film industry.
He said developing the culture and film sectors would enable the Japanese to see the other face of Nigeria and vice versa.