…signs MoU with DIASFUNDS AFRICA on African Cultural Heritage Digital Museum
BY ODILI CHRISTEL
In a bid to sustain African culture and heritage the National commission for museums and monuments (NCMM) partners with DIASFUNDS AFRICA LIMITED,
in respect of the African Cultural Heritage Digital Museum. Noting that the proposed museum is the first of its kind in Africa.
The Director General of the National Commission of Museums and Monuments, Mallam Yusuf Abdullah Usman made this known while signing an MoU with DIASFUNDS AFRICA LIMITED for the proposed museum called the Virtual museums. He reiterated that the need of creating the Virtual Museums was introduced by the promoter of the concept, Mr. Obinali Egele who believes that Africans should derive benefits from their heritage and also be proud of their roots.
He stated that the partnership is to establish the respective rights and obligations of NCMM and Diasfunds Africa limited regarding the commissioning of High Resolution Photographs of 1000 oldest Man-made artefacts provided by NCMM and the development establishment, administering of the “African Cultural Heritage Digital Museum” including the exhibition of images of the artefacts, marketing, promotion and use of the images and revenue generation from the said images.
According to him, “regarding the African Heritage Digital Museum which shall be ready and be inaugurated on May 18, 2016, which is the international Museum Day, users of the images in the museum shall pay per click. Revenues thus paid shall be shared by the parties, with this users from the entire globe particular from the nations of the West shall start paying us for remnants of what the British looted in 1897 and what their other kiths have been unable by stealth to cart away”.
He reiterated the resolve of NCMM to continue working towards protecting, preserving and promoting Heritage.
“We call on all Nigerians to join us in this onerous task as culture as social product can only be successfully promoted by involving the people”, he said.
Also speaking, the Founder, DIASFUNDS Africa Limited, Mr. Obinali Egele noted that the Journey of Digitalizing Africa’s heritage started way back 1995, nothing that it is a journey in which actions have been taken to bring to the fore the fact that there are opportunities for the commission and Nigeria to actually monetize the unique heritage that we have as a country.
He emphasized that the idea of this collaboration is to try and monetize that, and also try to inspire the younger generation to be able to look back at some of the wonderful and mind blowing things that have come from this country and use that to open up their minds to help solve problems and create new ideas.
According to him, “Most of us know in Africa and a lot of the museums are having very limited revenue generations opportunities for museums around Africa, a lot of our artefacts are scattered, stating that most of our cultural heritage are situated in international museums and the result of this fragmentation is that the history is dying, most young people are completely unaware of the significant achievement that have happened in the past and let alone see this things and we believe in DIASFUNDS that by this very situation a competitive advantage is been lost as a country”.
He noted that the initiative is a unique business models in the sense that its private sector funding so there is no cause for the museum, but there is revenue that should come to the museum,” it’s sustainable because the museum sees the benefits, the private sector sees the benefits too in promoting their grounds around the museum, and its focus”.
“We want the oldest 1000, we want people to be able to say anyone born in Nigeria should be able to look at an artefact and give you an idea of how old it is and how important it is to our heritage and its comprehensive.
Mr. Obinali, noted that, “We are starting with the oldest man-made 1000 images from National Museum but what we hope to do is to work with other international museums so that when you’re looking at Nigerian’s artifact, you are looking at a comprehensive collection and you will never have an opportunity to see that comprehensive collection unless you are fortunate enough to go to all the available individual museum so in a way we are bringing all of that together”.
He reiterated that it is a perpetual revenue platform, where revenue can be derived to preserve the artefacts, and by preserving this artefacts it will make people aware of them, which will bring about more people visiting museums because they are aware, noting that most importantly the initiative will inspire people, and as a country we need to be inspire the younger generations to go out there and complete.
He noted that the museum would target those tools used by the younger generations, photographs with a bit of information. Stating that one of the reasons while it’s a digital museums is because it has global reach because we want to be able to reach as many people as possible around the globe. Which could be easily accessed.
“We want to start with Nigeria as the first gallery and as far as we are concerned there is nothing of this kind that exists and come may 18th we would be inaugurating something that is the first which will spotlight Nigeria in a very different way”.
“with the help of this collaboration, we would pull out African resources, we have a lot of capitals and ideas residents on the continents but we also have the same scattered all over the world and what we are trying to do is to pull those resources for everyone’s collective benefits to make Nigeria Great as a country”, he said.