NAFEST 2010 to Explore ICT for Marketing Cultural Products

National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) said  that the 2010 edition of the annual National Festival for Arts and Culture (NAFEST), would explore the potentials inherent in Information and Communications Technology towards the efficient packaging and marketing of these cultural assets.
NCAC is worried by the low market penetration of cultural products and Mr Malgwi Maidugu, its executive director said that given the limitless investment opportunities in the nation's diverse creative industry.
He spoke in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, at the 34th Meeting of Chief Executives of Culture,
“We should use the platforms of the festival and other national cultural engagements with a view to tapping and harnessing our cultural resources as effective tools for revenue generation, poverty alleviation, rural transformation, economic empowerment in line with the present administration's development policies." He added
With the theme: "Cultural Industries and Economic Empowerment" the 2010 NAFEST, Maidugu further said, "shall focus on the use of ICT facilities with a view to attaining the standard of modern practice in packaging and marketing our cultural products to enable us compete favourably at the global market."
The event, billed for October in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, according to Maidugu, would document the nation's cultural industries with specific attention on crafts, traditional music and dance, peculiar to each state and the FCT, while also showcasing its regular features; food fair, traditional wrestling, cultural market, colloquium and the children's components designed by the Council to promote young talents.