The National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) said the 2022 International Arts and Crafts (INAC) Expo helped to showcase the nation’s arts and crafts to the world.
The Director-General of NCAC, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
Runsewe said: “this year’s INAC, we had China, Bangladesh, Syria, and U.S attending for the first time.
”We have been able to connect with more countries than it used to be.
“We had 54 countries in this year’s INAC, that was enough to tell us that more countries were coming together to celebrate our arts and crafts.
“There can’t be any better way to network our crafts to the world than platforms like this,” he said.
Runsewe recalled that before COVID-19, the arts and culture sector was generating about 3.5 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“But, if anybody will give you a correct estimate now, it will take some times because COVID is just flashing out.
“We needed to see what was the contribution particularly now that all the airlines come to Nigeria.
“They bring in a lot of people but we have not been able to tap into those customers’ networks.
“So, there is no amount of efforts we put, if you don’t get exposure to tell our story nobody will understand our next line of action,” NCAC chief said.
He said that although the NCAC had challenges but those challenges were considered as ”preparing one for the next level.
“From my own school of thought, I see challenges as preparing one for the next level, because people misunderstand the word challenge.
“Challenges are to prepare you for your future. But, most times when challenge confronts us, we believe that it is going to be the end of the road.
“So, for me, we are very happy that all the challenges put together, we get them and send them across through the media.
“So, for us as children of God, all challenges have a purpose of preparing us for the future,” Runsewe said. (NAN)
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