by DYI Team
Mr. Linus Idahosa, in partnership with Storyland Studios, signed the MOU with Lagos State Government on Wednesday, October 12th
The Governor of Lagos State, flanked by the Chairman of Del-York Group, Mr Linus Idahosa, COO of Del-York Group, Mr Ikenna Oguike, Executive Director for The Del-York Creative Academy (DCA), Grant Housley, was elated as they signed the MOU for the construction for Africa’s first Film & Media City.
Del-York Group, a strategic partner in the construction of this one-of-a-kind undertaking, is collaborating with Storyland Studios, the leading U.S firm in the construction of theme and leisure parks, to achieve this vision.
The 100-hectare project, “Africa Film & Media City,” is located in the Epe area of Lagos at Ejirin City and will support a multitude of spaces for creatives and a wider community. It will serve as an all-in-one facility with leisure, entertainment, and learning infrastructure plans. It will also have a Vocational University, accommodation, and numerous state-of-the-art studios to support Television, Radio, and Film ranging in scale through pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution.
The entertainment campus, also known as Kebulania Studios, will be Africa’s Home for such a purpose and the first of its kind in the region. The main goal of this historic undertaking is to export Africa’s Film and T.V. capacity and creativity to global audiences in a sustainable way through a purpose-designed infrastructure that will match the dreams and most expansive imaginations of creatives on the African continent.
This venture is fundamental to the African film industry as it means more international producers can domesticate their filmmaking operations and have a pool of trained professionals they can draw on to produce quality, high-grossing box-office content.
The Africa Film & Media City will make history as the first of its kind in Africa, comparable only to foreign creative industries in Europe and the USA. It will open Lagos State even more to foreign visitors and attract investment. It will also create thousands of jobs for Lagosian, keeping Lagos on the steady lane to becoming an ultramodern city.
For the past 18 months, Mr. Governor has worked tirelessly, hand in glove with Del-York Group, to secure a strategic location and investors, including a recently-concluded trade mission to Washington D.C. with Mr. Linus Idahosa to meet with U.S. investors. Mr. Governor, after viewing the futuristic video presentation of film city, acknowledged it as “a demonstration of commitment” by Del-York to the success of this project.
Lagos State Government has committed to investing in this project which will break ground in the nearest future. With the creative industry making up 1% of Nigeria’s GDP at 1.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, the Africa Film & Media City is poised to make Lagos State even more prosperous. This project will also positively impact the tourism industry in Nigeria, which, in 2020, made up 2.8% of Nigeria’s GDP with 11 billion U.S. dollars and is projected to make up 5% of the country’s GDP by 2025.
When speaking on his partnership choice, The Governor praised Del-York for standing tall as a revered global vocational institution that has, for the past 12 years, produced thousands of skilled creatives in Nigeria and abroad. Under the leadership of Mr Linus Idahosa, a visionary, global entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Del-York Creative Academy has pioneered the capacity-building space. This fervour has morphed into infrastructural development and created a unique opportunity to propel Africa’s creative and tourism industry through the Africa Film & Media City.
Construction of the Africa Film & Media city is set to begin in the first quarter of 2023.
