By The Federal Government has approved a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as the Bankers’ Committee for the renovation of the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.
The MoU entailed that the CBN and Bankers’ Committee would run the National Theatre complex facility for 21 years before returning it to the Federal Government, with the sum of N21.89bn earmarked for the renovation of the facility.
According to The Punch, this development was disclosed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who addressed State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The President had in 2020 given approval to the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee to develop, refurbish, renovate the National Theatre and at the same time take over the adjoining lands to create a veritable creative industry where there will be four hubs: one each for films, music, IT and fashion.
“The memo today (Wednesday) was for the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding for the refurbishment of the National Theatre.
“The CBN and Bankers’ Committee are willing to invest N21.89bn to renovate, refurbish and commercialise (run it profitably) the National Theatre complex,” Mohammed said.
The minister said the development would pave way the way for investment and create job opportunities in the creative industry.
“It cannot be business as usual; it will be a turning point in the creative industry in the sense that we are going to have a brand-new National Theatre, an event centre that will help in creating more jobs.”
