Patrick Lee, National Chairman, Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), in a statement on Sunday urged the Federal Government to fulfil its promise of assisting the sector to recover from the slump caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
He spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) explaining that the Nigerian cinema industry has lost over N6 billion to the pandemic and is yet to recover after resuming business on September 19.
“There has been no help from government so far, only promises, we are calling on the federal government and the Lagos State Government to fulfil their promises.
“We want government to help us at this critical period because we are still going through a hard route difficult for us to navigate,” he said.
Lee revealed that the major sales cinemas recorded since its resumption was from the release of Toyin Abraham’s movie Fate of Alakada which recorded N57million.
“Nigerians’ appetite for going to the cinemas has been rekindled because this is the kind of figure we would have expected pre-COVID-19 for the release of Fate of Alakada,” he explained.
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“People are coming out to support Nollywood, we are confident and happy that our customers are coming back gradually. By Christmas this year, we should be going back to the pre-COVID-19 levels when everything becomes normal again. I must also say that we have had supportive landlords.”