Pay television company, Startimes, Friday, said it has invested over $220 million in Nigeria, over the last nine years to boost entertainment and enrich the country’s television experience. Speaking at the launch of the Chinese Animation season in Abuja, Vice President of StarTimes, Ms Guo Zi Qi, said along with other initiatives of the company, this had positioned it as the fastest growing television network in Nigeria.
The also expressed the company’s
resolve to cooperate with Nigeria in the area of animation production and in
the development of that segment of television. Also speaking, Director General of
the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, Mr. Yakubu Ibn Mohammed, lamented that
despite the fact that almost every child is fascinated by video animation,
especially cartoons, there is not a single dedicated cartoon channel that is
African in origin and content on any of the television network currently
operating in Nigeria. Mohammed, who was represented by Mr. Rabiu Adamu,
Director of Programmes, NTA, stated that this is probably because the country’s
local content producers and animators do not have access to the huge funding
and technical know-how required to produce animated content.
He said, “This trend is not healthy for us as
a nation, because our children today are the leaders of tomorrow who should be
embodiments of our culture and values, we need more local animated content and
I hope we can collaborate with foreign partners to achieve this objective.”
Mohammed expressed optimism that the visit of a team of Chinese animation
companies to Nigeria would ensure that areas of cooperation are found between
the experts and local producers to improve the quality and quantity of
indigenous animation content for local consumption and which is also suitable
for export.
“NTA has a long history of working
with various partners from all over the world as long as they are in line with
our core mandate of informing and educating Nigerians and preserving our
culture and values. We are open to discussing various areas of cooperation with
the Chinese team for the benefit of both parties,” he noted. Speaking in the same
vein, Executive Director of the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board, NFVCB,
Mr. Adedayo Thomas, stated reiterated the fact that China is Nigeria’s biggest
trading partners, noting however, that more cooperation is still needed in the
area of film and animation content production. He called for increased
collaboration between Nigeria and the government of China to arrest the influx
of uncensored and unclassified films into the country, stating that such
contents are capable of destroying the cultural fabric of the country.
According to him, arresting the
influx of uncensored and unclassified materials from China could only be better
achieved if there was a synergy among StarTimes and its partner, the NTA,
Chinese firms dealing in providing contents for the film industry and the
NFVCB. He further disclosed that the NFVCB is opened for more collaboration
that would be beneficial to both countries.
We’ve invested $220m in Nigeria over 9 years — StarTimes
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Friday, February 02, 2018
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