Bankers’ Committee Takes Charge of National Theatre, to Spend N22 Billion on Renovation

The Bankers’ Committee has taken over the renovation of the National Theatre following the approval of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Centre Bank of Nigeria.

Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, disclosed this on Wednesday to State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to the minister, the Bankers’ Committee were planning to invest as much as N21.89 billion in the National Theatre complex.

He explained that the MoU signed by the Federal Executive Council will allow the Bankers’ Committee to manage the facility for 21 years before returning it to the Federal Government.

Mohammed said, “The President had in 2020 given approval to the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee to develop, refurbish, renovate the National Theatre and at the same time take over the adjoining lands to create a veritable creative industry where there will be four hubs: one each for films, music, IT and fashion.

“The memo today (Wednesday) was for the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding for the refurbishment of the National Theatre.

“The CBN and Bankers’ Committee are willing to invest N21.89bn to renovate, refurbish and commercialise (run it profitably) the National Theatre complex.

“The MoU has a life span of 21 years after which it will revert to government. The important thing is that no job will be lost because after the National Theatre is renovated, a special purpose vehicle will be created to run it.

“It cannot be business as usual; it will be a turning point in the creative industry in the sense that we are going to have a brand-new National Theatre, an event centre that will help in creating more jobs.”