Access Bank Restates Financial Backing For Nollywood Producers

Access Bank plc has reiterated financial commitment to the development of the Nigerian movie industry through support to young film makers.
Consequently, the Bank has partnered with ‘In-Short Film Festival’ to encourage the young and future artiste as part of its corporate social responsibility.
“In Access Bank, we believe in catching them young. We are building them up gradually. We will continue to support them in our own way”, Herbert Wigwe, managing director/CEO who was represented by Ojini Olaghere, executive director, said while receiving a presentation from the ‘In-Short Film Festival’ team at the bank’s corporate head office in Lagos.
He noted that the Bank does a lot of corporate social responsibility without making noise about it, adding that it is the culture of the bank to make positive impact in the lives of people.
“We have supported them financially and in terms of logistics. We try to be there for them when they have some challenges. we have been in partnership for two years and we will continue to support them”, he said.
Victor Okhai, director, of ‘In-Short Film Festival’, explained that the festival started 2011 in partnership with Gothe-Institute, the German cultural center and has run for four years.
According to him, it is a festival that is created as a platform to discover young and talented film makers.
He noted that many of the past film makers who have won prices in this festival have since moved on to making future films and a lot of them are now wining prizes even in festivals abroad.
“We are here today to make a presentation to Access bank because they supported us as part of their corporate social responsibility. Through them, a lot of young people have a voice, through them a lot of them have a chance, through them a lot of young people have a hope and a future and so we thought we should acknowledge their contribution to the development of the Nigerian movie industry through the support of the festival”, he said.
Judith Audu, actress who emerged the best actress in the Festival said, “Actually it was surprising because I had a film in the Festival too that I produced. I though it was the film that would win but I did not see the award coming, I was shocked when my name was mentioned as the best actress for another short film I did – Alpha Mum.
I feel good. I feel like in everything that I have been doing, getting that recognition is huge and I am really overwhelmed with joy about it and I am thankful to the organizers of the film – the Festival for the platform”.