The Executive Director/CEO of the National Board of Film and Video Censors, Alhaji Adedayo Thomas, says the board has received and censored 280 films produced by the Nigerian film industry in the first quarter of the year.
He disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.
The NFVCB chief said the figure was given by the board’s Film Censorship and Classification Department in its first quarter report of the year, containing all the films sent to the board across the country.
The report is to be sent to the relevant Federal Government agency as an input to collect the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter.
The report shows that the number of movies produced decreased from 340 in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 340 in the first quarter of 2023 to 280, a decline of about 18 percent.
According to the statement, 106 of the films came from the board’s censorship center in Lagos, representing the bulk of films produced during the period under review, followed by Abuja with 99 films.
As noted in the report, Onitsha is next with 32 films, Abeokuta with three films, Kano with 15 and Benin with only one.
Analysis by censorship location also shows that Jose shot 14 movies, Port Harcourt eight while Ibadan and Kaduna shot one movie each.
“There is no doubt that our film industry has a key contribution to the national economy, as the films being produced are a clear reflection of the direct and indirect jobs that the sector creates.
“The NFVCB as an agency of the Federal Government is committed to providing an enabling environment for filmmakers; therefore, we ask them to cooperate with us by ensuring that they submit their films for classification,” he said.
The NFVCB is the Federal Government agency that regulates the film and video industry in Nigeria.
The commission is empowered by law to classify all films and videos, whether imported or locally produced.
It is also the duty of the board to register all the film and video outlets across the country and keep a record of those outlets among other functions.
IN
