The beautiful spectacle, irresistible warmth and charm for which Nigeria is well known was in full display as the first ever country pavilion makes its debut at MIPCOM 2013, a global gathering of the who-is-who in TV entertainment content, currently holding in Cannes, France
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The pavilion, which is proudly the brainchild of the National Broadcasting Commission, is being manned by a delegate of officers of the Commission led by the Director General –Mr Emeka Mba and some top management staff.
The inspiration behind the hosting of the country pavilion according to Mr. Emeka Mba, director general – National Broadcasting Commission –said stemmed from the fact that Nigeria being the content hub of Africa and MIPCOM the biggest content market in the world, it is only appropriate that Nigeria makes her presence known and felt at the global event.
“We are hoping to change the conversation. It has always been about us coming to MIPCOM to buy content but we are now repositioning to let other countries come and buy Nigerian content so that rather just being a consumer, we can also be exporters of Nigerian content to the rest of the world and I am very delighted that we are beginning to get positive response, going by what we have seen here today”.
The Nigerian pavilion recorded an impressive turn out of visitors whose interests were mainly in content acquisition, distribution and co-production. Some exhibitors under the Nigerian pavilion described day one this way:
Jane Maduegbuna – External Director, Afrinolly Fan Connect Online: I will say it has been awesome since the event kicked off yesterday with the match-making event. Today, I have had a lot of visitors and people are curious, so many participants visited the pavilion and they were very curious to know what we have to offer. Right now, it is about 3 O’clock and I have a meeting to attend outside already with some visitors. I want to thank the NBC for this wonderful opportunity.
Asiwaju Benson Akindeju – CEO, AK Media Concept: This event is very well organized. We have met a lot of participants from other countries who are willing to partner with us. I thank the NBC for providing this platform for us.
Dimiri Dike – Heritage Bank: the Nigerian booth has been up and running since morning and that is impressive. The NBC has really done so well by providing this opportunity to showcase Nigerian TV content. The organization of the whole event is so well coordinated. This pavilion feels so much like home unlike in the past when we come here and just move around individually. The NBC has also played the role of the facilitator very well. The number of visitors has been high. Today has been very successful and am sure that over the next few days, we are going to have more visitors.
Mo Abudu – CEO, Ebony Life TV: I want to thank the DG, NBC for hosting this pavilion. Ours is a new company and it would have been really difficult for us to organize this ourselves. Today has been a fantastic day! We just entered into a partnership with Disney Media to launch the hit TV series Desperate Housewives, Nigeria. We hope that come next year, we will have a bigger space to showcase more of Nigeria.