Commission sets aside Sh25m to finance startups : The Standard

The funding challenge faced by many budding filmmakers in the country is set to ease after the Kenya Film Commission (KFC) set aside Sh25 million to support startups. Stakeholders say the film industry has a huge unexploited potential to create jobs and brand the country generating upto Sh200 billion to the economy annually by 2022. To address the funding gap, the film empowerment program will fund half of the budgets of the filmmakers whose business plans are approved by the commission  KFC Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Owase who announced a film industry stakeholders forum in Embu County identified lack of funds and equipment as some of the stumbling blocks for the local film makers.

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Owase said the commission is rolling out fully equipped film resource centres in all counties to facilitate film production.  "The purpose of the resource centres is to facilitate graduates from various film schools with free access to equipment for film production to actualise their training. Such equipment is expensive and out of reach of newly trained film graduates," he pointed out. On concerns by stakeholders that piracy remains a threat to their efforts, the CEO conceded that the vice is pulling back the efforts of artists across the world.

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To curb it, he said KFC has partnered with the Kenya Copyright Board to roll out relevant technologies to protect artists' works. He said also, they are sensitizing the public on the need to buy original content.                

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Related Topics

Kenya Film CommissionKenya Copyright Board