By Sewe Ishola

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has  only words of commendation for the producers of the newly premiered romantic comedy, “The Wedding Party.”

He praised them for raising the standard of the movie industry in Nigeria to international levels.

Before it premiered in Lagos, the movie was first  shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2016 and another premiere held in Lagos on November 26.

The movie. which was directed by Kemi Adetiba had some of Nigeria’s biggest entertainment stars like;  Richard Mofe-Damijo, Sola Sobowale, Alibaba, Iretiola Doyle, Banky W and Adesua Etomi.

While commending the producers, Mohammed said the important thing was to see how the creative industry was moving from the margins to become one of the pillars of the economy.

“People are beginning to take the arts more seriously, a lot of things are happening. You can see the major shift that is beginning to happen.

You can imagine the amount of investment that will go into this film, you can imagine the number of jobs it will create, that’s a challenge to us in government.

It shows that this industry is sustainable when we provide the right environment in terms of regulatory framework, in terms of laws, in terms of protecting intellectual property.

What is clear is that the kind of framework the government today is providing the film industry, tourism, arts and the likes, will definitely play to become a better role in the economy”.