The National Film Authority (NFA) of Ghana has partnered Great Minds Group of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to organise Africa’s first Cinema Convention, in Accra, next Monday.
Dubbed: “ MetaCinema Forum Africa”, the event is expected to explore prospects for cinema infrastructure development and related opportunities for the audiovisual sector in Ghana.
It is aimed at creating the opportunity to attract foreign direct investments, by stimulating local investments for cinema infrastructure development on the African continent.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times, Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante, the Chief Executive Officer, NFA, said: “Meta Cinema Forum Africa will work to close the gap in cinema exhibition.”
He said that the forum would be a gathering of global cinema investors, film distributors, cinema developers, key policy makers in the film ecosystem on the African continent.
“This intervention is a dedicated effort towards exploring prospects to increase the number of cinema infrastructure, ensuring a vibrant distribution network, creating jobs for the sector and impacting the African economy through arts and tourism, ’’Ms Asante said.
She said that as the headquarters of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA), Ghana, was proud to be the cinema gateway, opening the door for the continent in its strategic bid to the world of cinema investors, exhibitors and builders.
Ms Asante said Africa remained the most underserved market in cinema exhibition with less than 1700 screens to over 1.3 billion population on the continent.
She said “a vibrant cinema infrastructure will ease the distribution headache of the continent and encourage more investments into high-quality content.
“Africa is the most underserved cinema market globally with one screen to every787, 402 people. The highest is China with 75,581 screens (1 screen to 215,900 people) followed by the United States with 44,111 screens (1 screen to 7503) according to the 2021 UNESCO report on ‘Africa Film Industry challenges and trends”.
The lack of screens on the continent, Ms Asante said was “a gap African countries are actively working to bridge thus the gap of the market potential of $20 billion in revenue to the continent and$20million jobs from the present 5billion and 5million respectively.”
Leila Masinaei, Managing Partner of Great Mind Events Management, said the forum was launched to support the growth and development of emerging and rapidly developing markets, highlighting the potential, needs and wants of each market and territory it served.
“Our events are unique and exceptional as we literally have served as the first point of contact for many key players, which has yielded direct, measurable results from new mega project agreements to F&B purchase agreements to film distribution agreements,” she stated.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
