Access Bank Pledges Support for Movie Producers, Other Creative Sectors

Access Bank Plc had stated its willingness to back movie producers in the nation as well as other operatives in the creative division.
This is in series with the Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI), a Bankers’ Committee financing scheme that was opened recently.

Addressing during an interactive session which leading operators in the movie industry that took place at the bank’s head office in Lagos, the Executive Director, Business Banking Division, Access Bank, Mrs Chizoma Okoli, said the initiative was aimed at stimulating activities in the creative sector of the economy.

Okoli added: “We are having this conversation so that we can let you know we can help you in accessing these funds. At Access Bank what we normally do, especially with our SME customers is to give them advice, we plan their financials for them and we even go up to register their businesses.
“For the creative industry, by the time we hear from you (the movie producers) today, we would know the kind of support you want and we would do them because we actually want you to have access to these funds.”
She stressed that Access Bank was well positioned to support the sector because of the quality of its manpower.

“I want to assure you all that we are committed to supporting your business and we would do all we are supposed to do to make sure that those of you who require it, get the fund.
“The reason why this fund came out was that we need to create jobs; we need to be able to give entrepreneurs the funding and capacity to achieve their dream, and we need to look at the entire value chain and support it,” she added.
In a presentation, the Zonal Head, SME Banking, Access Bank Plc, Mr Bidemi Adeboye, explained that the fund was at a single digit interest rate.

“If the money gets to the hands of a movie producer today, it means we are funding the entire value chain because it gets to the driver, the movie producer, their families and everybody.
“In terms of security which has always been a challenge, we were told by the CBN that it must be very flexible so that it will be very easy to access it.

“For the equipment end, we are saying if we allocate appropriate funds to equipment, then we are going to produce quality movies and you don’t need to go outside this country for forex.
“With that, even people from neighbouring countries can come to Nigeria to shoot their movies,” he added.
The CIFI has four pillars: fashion, information technology, movie and music. What that means is that the special loan facility can only be accessed by people with businesses in the creative sector.

July 05, 2019