Chocolate Metropolis CEO Abuchi Peter Ugwu has warned that Lagos could lose the financial momentum of its fast-growing artistic business if the state fails to repair long-standing infrastructure gaps affecting live shows, movie manufacturing, cultural expertise, and youth-driven leisure companies.
Ugwu made the remarks in Alausa, Ikeja, through the Financial Roundtable Dialogue hosted by the Financial Intelligence Division of the Lagos State Ministry of Financial Planning and Finances.
The occasion introduced collectively policymakers, business leaders and analysts to look at Lagos’ evolving financial panorama and the structural challenges slowing sectoral development.
In keeping with Ugwu, the artistic sector has turn into one in every of Nigeria’s most dynamic financial engines, pushed largely by the nation’s younger inhabitants and international consideration on Afrobeats, Nollywood, and digital content material.
What he stated
“I believe Lagos has been a house to a variety of actresses, the artistic sector. However if you take a look at it deep down, there’s a variety of infrastructure hole.
So, for instance, there’s not even one massive venue in Lagos that may do a live performance. So I’m joyful we’re speaking concerning the transport leg, we’re speaking about, I really feel like, the entire ecosystem. So that you hear each massive actor now claiming, Oh, I offered Wembley within the UK, which is 20,000 capability.”
Ugwu argued that Lagos’ transport and event-support infrastructure shouldn’t be preserving tempo with the size of demand. Transferring giant crowds for occasions stays tough attributable to insufficient parking, visitors congestion and restricted mass transit choices. These points, he warned, scale back the business viability of leisure initiatives and restrict Lagos’ capacity to compete with cities that supply smoother logistics. With hundreds of younger Nigerians pouring into Lagos every year, he stated the hole between demand and infrastructure is widening.
What Lagos movie allow course of is like
He additionally criticised the state’s complicated and unpredictable film-permit course of. Not like Cape City, the place creators get hold of approvals by way of a streamlined digital system filmmakers in Lagos usually shuttle between a number of companies with out success.
‘’So it’s like, how will we construct that system, primary. Secondly, when you go to locations like Cape City, if I need to shoot, like many of the massive commercials you see, all of the bands in Nigeria go to Cape City. They go in all places.
“And that’s a variety of assets that we ship out. However the issue, once more, is that if I need to get permission to shoot in a village, I’ll go to love 10 companies. And if I am going to 10 companies, I nonetheless may not have a allow.’’
Past live shows and movie, Ugwu pointed to the rise of cultural-tech platforms like Chowdeck as proof that Lagos is present process a youth-led business transformation that authorities coverage has but to totally acknowledge.
He referenced a Chowdeck report exhibiting multibillion-naira annual income for an area Shomolu meals enterprise, arguing that such circumstances exhibit how expertise and tradition are merging to create new worth chains. “These are issues authorities doesn’t at all times perceive,” he stated. “However they’re reshaping the economic system.”
Ugwu confused that the artistic sector shouldn’t be looking for monetary handouts however the foundational infrastructure to function successfully. He referred to as for a unified system for allowing, purpose-built venues, and concrete planning that acknowledges the size of Lagos’ youth inhabitants and the industries they help
What you must know
Nairametrics beforehand reported that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yemi Cardoso, had estimated that Nigeria’s artistic business holds the potential to generate $25 billion. Additionally, Lagos has emerged because the fastest-growing tech ecosystem on the planet for 2025, based on a brand new report by Netherlands-based analysis agency Dealroom.co.
Already, Governor Jide Sanwoolu has famous that Lagos continues to guide in galvanizing development throughout vogue, movie, music, and the humanities. He reaffirmed his administration’s dedication to strengthening the ecosystem for the artistic sector by way of entry to finance, infrastructure, and supportive insurance policies.