By James Wakahiu
The local film, music, drama and arts sector has received a major boost
following the opening of a talent academy by the Mount Kenya
University (MKU) on Thursday.
The programme dubbed Cape Media Talent Academy targets students in
universities and beneficiaries will acquire professional hands-on
training, as well as employment opportunities, among other key
incentives.
According to an agreement between MKU and Cape Media Ltd, the
university will provide the academy with creative content as developed
by the students. This will allow the talented students to be engaged by
the academy in various and different ways, hence leading to job creation.
MKU Vice Chancellor Prof Deogratius Jaganyi has urged MKU students
take advantage of this opportunity and congratulated Cape Media
Limited for the innovative undertaking. “Moreover, the student artists
who are going to participate in the content creating will get certificates
which will give them an edge within the job market,” noted the VC.
Launching the Cape Media Talent Academy at the institution’s Thika
campus, the Kenya Film Classification Board Acting Chief Executive
Officer, CPA Paskal Opiyo, congratulated Cape Media and MKU for
initiating the Talent Academy which aims to harness, cultivate, nurture,
showcase and monetize the talents of young Kenyans through training.
“I applaud this initiative, for it is no doubt key to addressing the
mismatch of skills that has been a hindrance for young people pursuing
careers in the Creative Economy,” he said.
said the Creative Economy, comprising film, advertising, broadcast and
visual arts, ranks among the world’s most rapidly growing sectors,
contributing three per cent to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“According to statistics published by UNESCO in 2023, Statistics
further show that the creative economy has created more than 30 million
jobs for workers aged 18-25 more than any other field of employment
across the world,” he said.
Opiyo said in Kenya, a 2019 Economic Survey by the Kenya National
Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicates that the Kenyan film and
broadcast industry directly employed 129,824 people in 2019, or about
4.5 percent of the country's total employed workforce. In the same
period, it is estimated that the Kenyan film and audiovisual sectors
contributed Sh15 billion to the country's GDP.
A report published by PWC Africa titled: Africa and Entertainment
Outlook 2023-2026, projects that Kenya’s broadcast and entertainment
industry will improve in the next three years with an estimated monetary
value of 900 million USD by 2026. “It is in the above context that the
Government is convinced that the Creative Economy has the potential to
transform Kenya’s fortunes and improve the livelihoods of our youth
through job creation and income generation,” the accountant said.
Opiyo said the objectives of the Talent Academy resonate with the
BETA and the Talanta Hela Initiative that is being championed by the
Ministry of Youth Affairs, the Creative Economy, and Sports where
KFCB is domiciled. “No doubt that this program has the potential to
create job opportunities, especially in this era, when the white-collar job
space is shrinking alarmingly. Indeed, this is an opportunity that should
be embraced by both the public and private stakeholders to empower the
young generation,” he said.
In a speech read on his behalf by Nelly Muluka, the board’s Corporate
Communication Manager, Opiyo commended Cape Media for
supporting the creative industry by broadcasting locally produced audio-
visual content and providing a platform for Kenyans to share their
unique and authentic stories and experiences on its various platforms
(TV 47 and Radio 47). “Your role in creating job opportunities for
young people, as well as promoting the consumption of local content is
laudable and aligns well with the Government's Fifth Pillar of the
Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) and the Talanta
Hela Initiative,” he added.
Opiyo pointed out that the reason behind examining and classifying film
and broadcast content is to mainly to protect children/minors from
exposure to inappropriate content as well as to ensure that content
conforms to Kenyan culture and national values. “It is important to note
that protecting children from exposure to inappropriate content is a
collective responsibility. It is within this context that we urge local
broadcasters to take advantage of the expanded airwaves to produce
more local content and ensure that the same is examined by the KFCB
for age appropriateness,” he cautioned.
Opiyo said the expansion of the internet spectrum has made it easier for
content creators to produce, distribute, broadcast, and exhibit their
audio-visual content while monetizing the same through various
technological platforms. “The expanded airwaves also provide a
platform for the exhibition of more locally produced content. To this
end, I encourage broadcasters to exhibit more local content to meet the
current demand,” he said.
Welcoming invited guests to MKU, Vice Chancellor Prof Deogratius
Jaganyi said data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics as well
as from many other organizations in Kenya and beyond point out
towards the huge numbers of unemployed youths in Kenya, Africa and
in many developing countries.
The VC said an estimated 35 per cent of youth aged between 18 and 35
years are currently either underemployed or unemployed. In 2023, a
record of 23,044 people, most of them among the youth applied for
some 293 vacant positions advertised by the Public Service Board in
Bomet County.
“This illustrates the huge numbers of persons seeking employment in
Kenya and across all African countries. It is a scenario that calls for an
innovative strategy in job creation within Africa and in other developing
countries across. In a world where creative arts industry is a popular
engagement and given the increasing interest across the world of persons
who daily turn to the entertainment industry for leisure, then, the Cape
Media’s Talent Academy becomes a very important intervention in
youth skills development and jobs creation,” he added.
MKU Pro-chancellor, Dr Vincent Gaitho said the government of
Kenya’s commitment to promote creative economy was demonstrated in
2023’s establishment of the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative
Economy and Sports, which has two State Departments namely; State
Department for Youth Affairs and Creative Economy and State
Department for Sports.
He said this is a broad and wide variety of creative products and
services such as art, fashion, music, film, apps, crafts, and many others
contributing to a huge section of the GDP despite the challenges of
thefts in copyrights.
“The creative Economy contributes to the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) in multiple ways, especially to Goals 1 (no poverty), 5
(gender equality), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 9 (industry,
innovation, and infrastructure), 10 (reduced inequalities), 11 (sustainable
cities), 12 (sustainable consumption and production patterns), 16
(peaceful and inclusive societies) and 17 (means of implementation and
global partnerships),” he added.
Dr Gaitho noted that the CBC as introduced in Kenya provides the
Kenyan child with an option of academic engagement in creative arts as
an option of career engagement.
According to a recent newspaper feature published in Nairobi, the
creative industry plays a key role in fostering creative thinking as well as
addressing the high unemployment rates (especially among the youth).
The article by Business Daily on 6th May 2024 entitled, “Creative
Economy: Addressing unemployment by embracing Kenya’s art talent”
cited the Kenya Government’s “identification of creative economy as a
vital sector in job and wealth creation as well as an enabler of social
cohesion and innovation.”
Present at the launch was Mr Mwenda Njoka, Group Managing Director,
Cape Media, representatives of other government agencies and
representatives of the Private sector.
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