Event and Entertainment group have called on the Kwara state government set up a consolidated fund that they can give to them as loans that has interest single digit and morritorium
Speaking with newsmen in Ilorin, Mr Ben Nwabor of Multimedia Industry said “since entertainers want to conform with NCDC rules of not having illegal activities and we want to coorpirate with the Kwara state government in ensuring that we flattened the curve and the disease dissapear in Kwara state completely
” We hospitality people, entertainment people hereby plead with his Excellency to have a consolidated fund that we can have as loan on interest but with morritorium, I repeat myself, we plead with His Excellency to have a consolidated fund for those who are in entertainment
“Alot of us have gone into one loan or another Pro Covid and the banks are not listening, they say you must pay, and we do not want to be an avarice to the government. What we asked or what we request for on behave of my colleagues here is that the state government should set up a consolidated fund that they can give to us as loans that has interest single digit and morritorium and that morritorium is post Covid.
” When we say is post Covid we can not say six months, we cannot say two months, we cannot say three months, immediately Covid is over, we are ready to begin to pay off our loans it will help us not to throw off all the staff, that we already have, because alot of us have been paying staff between twenty, thirty, fourthy on monthly basis from March till today out of our own funds, we have to maintain security because of our equipment , we have to maintain our drivers incase they are jobs to come, we cannot continue to maintain all these people and the same time, we still want to conform with all the rules of the state government, we want to conform with the rules of NCDC, we want to stay safe and we want Nigerians to stay safe this is our appeal and it is an appeal I want that word to be understood”
“We are in support for everythIng His Execelency is doing most especilly in encouraging entrepreneaurship, we are not against his Execellency, hospitality entertainment are the first to be shut down immediately Covid started and we are likely to be the last to be opened when the coast is clear. We want to ensure that we conform with state government rules, we want to conform with NCDC rules and the Federal government of Nigeria rules, for people having social functions illegally we have made some appeals that what they are doing is wrong because health for one is health for all. In conforming with all these rules, all those of us who are entertainers are also entrepreneurs and in the upstream and downstream of entertainment and hospitality we have more than five thousand people that are lined up there and those five thousand people may have another fifty thousand people that are lining up behind them, and since the shut down, two things has happened to us, our equipment is dilapidating, because of lack of use, all who have trucks the trucks are down because we can not keep warming all those batteries on daily basis without warming, the halls have gone down because of lack of maintenance those who have equipment, the equipment have gone down because every technology equipment is based on Condensers when they are not in use after a month or two, the condensers go down they are not likely to function again, knowing the state of the economy of Kwara state that there is no money in Kwara state, we now decided to have this little press conference to be able to appeal to his Excellency, we are not asking for the government to dash us money or all the palliative that is being done, we are professionals and in being professionals, what we have seen that is being done in other clams is what we want to be adopted here and what is being done in other clams is that, hospitality, entertainment contribute close to about 60 percent of every GDP in any country of the world and we would not allow that Covid-19 to affect the hospitality in Kwara state, in order not to do that, other states have adopted the fact that since entertainers want to conform with NCDC rules of not having illegal activities and we want to coorpirate with the Kwara state government in ensuring that we flattened the curve and the disease dissapear in Kwara state completely, we hospitality people, entertainment people hereby plead with his Excellency to help us with soft loan.
“There has been moved before now, writing letters of appeal and all that and I think that with your cooperation you will be able to help us to do this, is not just affecting us in Kwara state is affecting all the entertainers in Nigeria. And all over the world what everybody is trying to do is to make sure that this industry does not die. Lagos state has done that with consolidated fund of 1 billion naira to all the entertainers, assesible and payable and other states are also making other moves to do that, that is why we are appealing to his Excellency to please look into our plight and find a away to give us soft landing so that more people will not be put into unemploy market as a result of negative effect of covid19” he said
The group include Association of caterers and restaurant owners, DEEJAY Association of Nigeria Kwara state chapter, rentals Association, Association of juju musicians of Nigeria( AJUMN) Performance Musician Association of Nigeria (PMAN) and FIBAN.
