Tunde Ayinla, a leading Creative Director, Visual Communicator, Veteran Choreographer and Creator of the Dancinematic Universe, has given an insight on how the Nigerian government plans to propel the creative industry into a $100bn market by 2030.
According to reports, Ayinla while answering to questions maintained that the Kwara State government, with the soon-to-be-ready Institute of Contemporary Arts and Film (ICAF) also known as Ilorin Visual Arts Centre (IVAC), is leading the charge to actualize the dream.
When asked about his driving force, Ayinla maintained that it’s gratitude. According to him, “Gratitude! I strongly believe that my unique gifts can only find meaning if shared with the world. Hence, the need to show my gratitude to God by sharing and impacting society with these gifts remains my strongest driving force. Denzel Washington once said about God-given gifts: ‘On your last day you can’t take them with you. You have to leave them here.'”
Ayinla, while commenting on how the viral AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq: The Untold Story docu-series came about, said that the Kwara State’s ambitious projects like the Ilorin Visual Arts Centre (IVAC) also known as Institute of Contemporary Arts and Film (ICAF) sparked the idea for the “Dancinematic” Docu-Series, while showcasing the state’s tourism and investment potential through dance and storytelling.
While emphasizing on the soon-to-be-ready IVAC, Ayinla said, “If well-led creatively, IVAC is primed to be disruptive in the entertainment industry and the state could become the hub of the creative industry in Nigeria. The building, inspired by the timeless Arewa logo, makes a visual culture-themed statement and the facilities within it are unbelievably world-class. It has two enormous contemporary art galleries for exhibitions of great works of arts from all over the world. It also has a world-class animation production studio, a groundbreaking Dolby Atmos certified studio environment for its Dub Stage and other facilities for last-mile film, audio and animation post-production accompanied by a Producer’s Lounge with three cinematic production spaces, which can also double as co-working space for filmmakers and artists to create and collaborate, creating a unique hub overall for the creative industry in Nigeria and Africa. The Centre has a screening room, lecture hall, studio for hosting workshops and real-time visual arts production, sculpture gardens for public use, a multipurpose room, a café and a bookshop. I’m truly proud to be from Kwara and I believe with a couple of self-sustainable ‘blue ocean’ projects in collaboration with the private sector to get out of the ‘red ocean’ of bloody competition, powered by its facilities, IVAC can easily generate millions of dollars per year just from the music and film industry alone, especially in the animation sub-film-industry projected to worth $528.8 billion by 2030. Also, just look at the global venues being sold out already by Nigerian music artistes.”
On his observation on the current administration’s desire to earn $100bn by 2030 through the export of creative culture, he says, “Interestingly, it was while making the docuseries that I got the details of the unprecedented steps taken by the government, starting from IVAC at my state level, to the federal level with the creation of the Ministry of Creative Economy (fused with Arts and Culture) by President Bola Tinubu, and followed by its minister’s 8-point Agenda. Also worthy of mention is the unprecedented collaboration talks between President Tinubu and executives of The Recording Academy (Grammys) on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) held in New York some months ago, and also government-supported creative hub(s) currently in the works. I believe it can be achieved because one could see that government is ready to create the enabling environment for the creative industry in Nigeria to thrive.”
He charged the aspiring creatives who would like to be among the success stories of the $100bn market by 2030 that: “They have to be intentional with their craft and there’s no better time than now to hone their respective creative skills and build capacity. Simplicity being the highest form of sophistication in their delivery cannot be overstated and they should always absorb what is useful, discard what is not, and then add what is uniquely their own, to make them stand out, giving them an edge in riding the oncoming wave stirred by the Nigerian government to carry our creative economy to the $100 billion dollar shore.”
Hailed from Ilorin, Tunde Ayinla, a graduate of Creative Multimedia Technology, who specialises in Visual Communication abroad with a professional career that spans over two decades, has had the good fortune of working with renowned names across the creative industry, from being the creative director of the African Troupe in the first ever World Dance Parade held in Malaysia to directing visual adverts and music videos in Africa and Asia resulting in collaboration/networking with an Emmy Award winner from the U.S and a pioneering director of the first Disney+ African Animated Series from Uganda to having the honor to create the first-of-its-kind Cinematic Re-election Campaign Docu-Series for His Excellency AbdulRahaman AbdulRazaq, the governor of Kwara State, also created “the art of making music visual through creative dance storytelling with a world-class cinematic delivery” called Dancinematic and its ever-expanding universe.
He is currently engaged as the Creative Director of an upcoming groundbreaking documentary in the agriculture sector that will feature world-famous celebrities from the United States, among others and will be globally promoted.
