By Amin Kef Sesay
In an Open Letter written by the Founder and CEO of Salone Jamboree, Sierra Leone’s Arts and entertainment newspaper, who is also a freelance reporter for the German International broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, Murtala Mohamed Kamara, to His Excellency the President, Julius Maada Bio, Murtala posited that the Creative Arts could turn around Sierra Leone’s economy if given the right support.
He stated that in the President’s 2019 State Opening of Parliament statement, he stated, that developing the creative industry is among his Government’s priority.
Quoting the President speech Murtala referenced: “Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we also remain committed to promoting music and performing Arts given the jobs it creates for our youth and the rebranding of our image as a nation. My Government will review and enforce policies and laws governing the sector, seek support to establish a National Arts Gallery and Theatre for Performing Arts using the Private Public Partnership model and re-establish and develop a cultural village.”
Murtala underscored that the creative industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors for economies around the world.
He said the sector can be a driver for a country’s economy if given the right policies and adequate investment but lamented that unfortunately for Sierra Leone, the country has not positioned itself properly to harness the immense opportunity that the sector has to offer.
“I’ve argued many times that we can never make a breakthrough without the right policies, capacity building, infrastructure and adequate investment,” he pointed out.
Referencing NIGERIA he said Governments across Africa are now turning to the creative industry to address the many unemployment challenges in their countries.
Murtala argued that they are not only developing their youths’ skills but are also providing investments, policies, and infrastructure to address some of those challenges.
He said Nigeria has exploited the creative industry for the benefit of its people. According to him the Nigerian film industry alone employs over one million people with annual profit of almost 600 million dollars, producing an average of 1,500 movies per year, making it the second-largest producer after Bollywood (India). He said in terms of revenue, Nollywood is the third largest film industry after Hollywood (US) and Bollywood.
Murtala raised the point that in 2011, a loan scheme of about 200 million dollars was approved. He said the Nigerian Government further gave grants of several million dollars between 2013 and 2017. These grants were given under the “Project Act Nollywood”, an investment aiming to ensure better production, distribution network and capacity building.
Dilating on GHANA he stated that learning from the Nigerian success story, Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, last month launched a $25 million Dollar ‘Presidential Film Pitch’ to the local film industry. The initiative, Murtala told President Bio, aims to provide jobs for 6,000 Ghanaians and create opportunities to market Ghanaian films abroad.
The project, he said, will engage investors, broadcasters, distributors, sponsors and platforms worldwide for potential collaborations, sponsorship, investment, sales and advertising opportunities.
President Akufo-Addo, according to him, said that he has also given assent to the Creative Industry Act passed by Parliament. He said the Act would help create the enabling environment for the Ghanaian film sector and the creative Arts, in general, contribute to Ghana’s growth.
Murtala argued that Sierra Leone has all it takes to be a movie giant in Africa.
“I’ve seen better movie locations in Sierra Leone than some of the locations I saw in Mauritius and South Africa. I’ve seen far better talents than some of the actors in Nollywood. What we lack is the right infrastructure; we have failed to add value to that location. We have failed to create the right policies; we have failed to invest in this sector. Therefore Sierra Leone is losing out,” he strongly stated. He highlighted that ‘Blood Diamond’, a film about Sierra Leone’s conflict Diamond, which cost over $100 million to make, was shot in Mozambique and South Africa.
Murtala concluded by telling the President that the creative arts industry has the potential to transform Sierra Leone’s economy if given the required attention.
“Sierra Leone can do it, we could learn from the others highlighted above,” Murtala firmly intimated.
