#OP-ED: The Nigerian Creative Industries - Tackling The Challenges

In recent times there have been numerous reports about the relevance of the creative industries to the development of National economies.

It has been reported that world trade in creative goods and services is one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy, doubling from 2002 to 2011, when it reached a record of US$ 624 billion. At the same time, developing countries averaged 12.1 per cent annual growth in the export of creative goods and services.

According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, Helen Clark,  “The cultural and creative industries are important engines of economic growth. They generate jobs and income and contribute to individual and community well-being in both developed and developing economies”

In Africa, the creative industries have experienced immense growth in the past decade. An October  2013 Business Day article reported, Oby Ezekwesili, the former Minister of Education and former Vice President of the World Bank, Africa,  as valuing  Nigeria’s  creative industry potential at over N5 trillion with annual turn-over of over N500 billion- indicating that it could be a bigger asset than the country’s oil industry.

With all of the optimism being expressed, the potential of the creative economy is not without its challenges. In this post, I aim to highlight some options for tackling the challenges facing the creative industries; before that though, just in case you’re wondering “What, exactly are the creative industries?” and “Why are they important?”

#101 SERIES: Dear Nigerian Blogger - Avoiding Intellectual Property Pitfalls

Two days ago, I came upon some reports  that a journalist, Aye Dee, successfully got Google to takedown infringing content on the popular Nigerian blog lindaikeji.blogspot.com. (Linda Ikeji, in case you don’t know, is a Nigerian blogger, whose blog page  is among the 10 most visited sites in Nigeria.

Apparently, there has been some backlash against her on social media- as indicated by comments and other reports. It is difficult not to wonder how much of this is due to disapproval of what some feel she represents, what some might call “beef” and how much of it is really concerned with the issue at hand i.e. copyrights and related infringements.

Yesterday, Linda, in her characteristically un-fazed manner, responded to the issues in a long rebuttal. Her reply may be summarized as follows: 

• She did not infringe on Mr Aye Dee’s rights because she has never been to his site.
• 1.       The real reason Aye Dee & co are raising this claim is because they are  “haters”  trying to take her blog down_ because