LASG Partners EbonyLife, Del-York Academies To Train 1,480 Creatives

The Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture said it has entered into a partnership with two creative firms – EbonyLife Creative Academy and Del-York Creative Academy – in a bid to enhance the skills and exposure of 1,480 creatives in the state through the Lagos State Creative Industry Initiative (LACI).

Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, disclosed that the gesture by the State Government was in continuation of the support already provided for stakeholders in the entertainment and creative industry.

Akinbile-Yussuf explained that while EbonyLife would undertake the physical classroom training for the beneficiaries, Del-York has been engaged by the government to provide a hybrid version of the online and physical aspects of the training for members of the creative industry.

According to her, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has approved the training of 480 practitioners, who are desirous of gaining world-class skills and career advancement by EbonyLife from February 2021, stressing that the online version of the training by Del-York Creative Academy will produce 1,000 beneficiaries making a total of 1,480 expected participants.

While noting that the 480 beneficiaries would be trained in four different batches of 120 participants in each quarter of Y2021, the Commissioner revealed that LACI will serve as a training platform for practitioners in the creative sector on the use of modern technology to enhance the content and quality of Nigeria’s entertainment, and project the practitioners as some of the best production crews in Africa and the World.

She also added that the State Government decided to go into the partnership with the creative firms because the initiative is in line with two of the development pillars of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s T.H.E.M.E.S agenda, which are Education & Technology as well as Entertainment & Tourism.

Confirming the development via a newsletter made available to TCN, EbonyLife CEO, Mo Abudu, said that ELCA was a direct response to the growing shortage of industry professionals, as Nollywood continues to expand.

“We have so much talent in Nigeria and our people are ready to work. Unfortunately, very little training is available locally and most people cannot afford to go abroad for training. EbonyLife Creative Academy is meant to fill that gap and make world-class training available. Thankfully, the governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, understood our vision and gave us the support we needed to establish the academy here in Lagos, the hub of Nigerian filmmaking,” she said.

According to Abudu, ECLA courses are developed by local and foreign industry experts and designed to help working film professionals improve their skills and make them globally competitive, and to equip beginners with the skills they need to launch their careers on a sound footing.