Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 18
18
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Investment in, and support for, Nigerian creative arts bring social and economic benefits for Nigerians.
Recommendation
Investment in, and support for, Nigerian creative arts bring social and economic benefits for Nigerians. Investment builds on the UK’s soft power as a champion of the arts, helping maintain its position as a leader in the worldwide music industry. We recommend the FCDO support the development of the Afrobeats genre, and other Nigerian creative arts, through: a) Funding proposed projects and broadcasters, such as the BBC World Service, aimed at extending the access of Nigerian creative arts to a wider audience. b) Supporting initiatives aiming to use the creative arts as a tool for reconciliation, development and empowerment in Nigerian society. Such initiatives should seek to support emerging artists from disadvantaged backgrounds and the approach should be outlined in the integrated delivery plan for Nigeria. c) Championing cross-government policies that encourage the cultural exchange between the UK and Nigeria including a track to make it easier for Nigerian musicians to perform in the UK as well as support for creative artists in maintaining the intellectual property rights over their work. The FCDO could consider initiating a UK-Nigeria Creative Arts Hub with DCMS that would allow for greater collaboration between artists. It could also facilitate access for artists to UK organisations which assist in development and training.
Paragraph Reference:
48
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
We partially agree with this recommendation. The FCDO is supportive of efforts to connect artists in the UK and Nigeria for both commercial and cultural reasons. Collaborations as with the song Peru (sung by Fireboy DML and Ed Sheeran, which reached number 2 in the UK charts and number 1 in the Afrobeat charts) show how active and mutually beneficial the connections are between UK and Nigerian musicians. The recent UK Government-supported creatives trade mission to Nigeria, led by the UK’s Trade Envoy Helen Grant MP, focused on building sector-to-sector connections – including potential ones with the British Film Institute – for film and TV. Another mission is planned for later in 2022, which will look at music and the arts. The FCDO remains committed to encouraging and celebrating the cultural connections between the UK and Nigeria. Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin in Nigeria are amongst the 12 BBC World Service language services funded by the FCDO, in addition to existing Hausa and African English services (funded by the Licence Fee). Content is produced locally, and the use of a variety of local languages ensures it is relevant, and accessible to wider audiences. However, the BBC World Service is operationally independent of government and all editorial matters regarding content are for the BBC Board. The Deputy High Commission in Lagos already co-ordinates the British Council’s work with cultural exchanges, such as the ‘Connecting’ programme that focuses on the growing creative economy sector and fashion, film and animation, connecting artists and creatives from the UK and Nigeria to build connections, capacity, livelihoods and prosperity. The Deputy High Commission ensures this work also aligns alongside other initiatives such as DIT Nigeria’s creative industries partnership initiative. We will look at how to make that co-ordination and collaboration more systematic, but we feel enhancing practical co-ordination of existing work would be more effective rather than creating a new creative arts hub.