Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Nigerian Gallery of Art said it plans to educate local artists towards fulfilling the criteria that will enable them to unlock fund from the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and develop the Nigerian art which is one of the most sought arts in the world.

The Director General Nigeria Art Gallery, Ahmed Sodangi, disclosed this recently in Abuja. He said that the gallery was also looking at how the art associations could serve as guarantors for artists as there were criteria that must be met before funding could be granted.

“Creativity needs finance and access to funds. There is a fund in SMEDAN where we can actually have a sit-down with artists because we need to understand what it is that we want to do with the funding because there needs to be a reason why you need the funding because you have to pay back the debt. What funding does is not measured by the profitability,” Sodangi said.

He added that the gallery had also been preoccupied with looking at the industry as a business structure in the light of the substantial financial requirement of the art business, stating going forward access to finance for artists and the remained his abiding philosophy as the DG of the gallery.

Sodangi said: “You know access to finance is something that I am very well interested in. The business of art and creativity need finance. If for instance there is a creative industry development fund, but at the moment they have not started disbursement.”

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