The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has announced that the commencement ceremony for the highly anticipated African Film City project in Epe, which is projected to cost $100 million, will take place before the end of October.
Sanwo-Olu disclosed this during a news conference on the forthcoming 12th African International Film Festival (AFRIFF), at the Government House, Marina, Lagos.
“We have great plans underway, first, is that we will be doing the groundbreaking for the African Film City before the end of this month.
“The film city would be on 100 hectares of land in Epe and it is massive. We just want to take the lead in Lagos State.
“We are hoping that the first set of studio should be ready from 24 to 30 months right after the groundbreaking,” Sanwo-Olu said.
According to the governor, the project is intended to enhance originality in content creation in Nigeria’s film industry.
The state government in October 2022, announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Del-York Group for the construction of the project.
Sanwo-Olu disclosed that the state government would be doubling the capacity-building support for talented young industry players to enhance their skills in modern filmmaking.
He also disclosed that grants for filmmakers would be increased henceforth to enable them operate seamlessly.
“I have been to a few studios in the United States of America, like Prime studio, Sugarland and more, they are excited and promised to come down here.
“Secondly, we are also going to be doubling our monetary support and training for upcoming players in the industry as well as increase grants for film producers, we will be doubling whatever it is we have done in the past,” he said.
The governor urged the practitioners to use their creativity to produce content that reflects African culture and positively influences the continent’s socio-cultural narrative adding that this will showcase Nigeria’s readiness for global recognition.
