The Consul-General of the South African High Commission in Lagos, Ambassador Mokgethi Monaisa, has expressed the desire of his country’s filmmakers to collaborate with their Nigerian counterparts in promoting the film industry.
Monaisa told the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Lagos that South African filmmakers had strong believe that the collaboration would also strengthen cultural relations between Nigeria and South Africa.
Because of Nigeria Hollywood’s increasing fame, many South African filmmakers are becoming more and more interested in collaborating with Nigerian film producers.
Monaisa said: “We believe that Nigerians have got the speed with which to produce films and that South Africa has the know-how, capacity and infrastructure for film making.
“It is, therefore, important for us to have collaboration with Nigeria’s Nollywood so that African film industry can favourably compete with the likes of Hollywood.”
The envoy added that the “desired collaboration” would also promote the continent’s cultural values to the rest of the world.
Monaisa also expressed optimism that the expected collaboration would promote people-to-people interaction and business-to-business relationships between both countries.
Monaisa said already a delegation of filmmakers from KwaZulu-Natai recently visited Lagos to make their intention known to Nigerian film producers.
He said: “There is the need for our two countries to have people-to-people as well as business-to business relationships.
“We need to know that the creative industry is very important in promoting our cultural values across Africa and to the world.”
NAN.