Microsoft Word - Achieving the promise of african cultural e

Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations Nollywood is hindered from becoming a global entertainment industry due to market failures requiring reforms from the public and private sector . Although Nigeria prolific movie industry does not benefit from any support from the government and worth more than $ 250 million, the industry is characterized by a low level of production standards, important marketing and distribution linkages and a limited access to finance. Further they are few global linkages, a strong need to improve quality at all stages of the value chain and to address the issue of piracy which makes it difficult for producers to recoup their costs. A recent World Bank discussion paper on “Youth Employment in Africa” identifies a strategy to improve youth employment whose conclusions should be reflected in the reform framework of the Nigerian movie industry. According to the study, the government has to tackle the root causes of and not just the symptoms of the issue and therefore African policy-makers will have to establish a coherent and comprehensive strategy with four subcomponents: health and family planning, literacy and education and skills, investment climate and finally targeted Investments. In the specific case of Nollywood a reform framework should focus on improving the investment climate and includes targeted investment. Overall it is critical to improve the investment climate in the industry since a good investment climate stimulates investment and job creation. Further, direct public support is required through targeted investments justified by the great potential offered by the movie industry in terms of improvement of production standards and growth.

Figure 14: Nollywood needs reform while creating youth employment

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