As part of its corporate social responsibility, NICO Group company has pumped in a sponsorship of K45 million to the Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) which will go towards supporting of the Copyright Fund Initiative called ‘Investments School of the Arts’ whose objective is to assist local artists by organizing trainings with the aim of imparting the cultural and creative industries with knowledge to do with financial management.

Speaking in Blantyre during the cheque presentation ceremony, NICO Group, Head of Marketing and Customer Experience, Lorraine Mlenga said the company realizes the importance of contributing towards the achieving of the national goal for Malawi 2063 Agenda hence thought it wise to express its commitment by supporting the creative industry sector which she said has a great potential of contributing significantly to the country’s economic growth.

Mlenga added that the the country is blessed when it comes to talent but the major setback is that artists face is lack of adequate support which also affect them to get exposed especially on how they can manage their talent as sustainable businesses.

“While the country is focusing to implement a number of programs in many sectors in order to make the Malawi 2063 agenda reality, we realize that the other area which deserve to be involved and fully supported is the creative industry, so we believe through this partnership we’ll be walking together towards making Malawi a developed nation,” said Mlenga.

Chairperson of the Investment Committee for COSOMA’s Copyright Fund Malawi, Robert Kapyepye commended NICO Group for the support, saying the money will bring a great positive mindset change among artists once they’re are equiped with necessary skills in the financial planning, insurance and investment skills which is very crucial in building their careers.

“We expect to run this program for period of 3-years and each year will be taking a cohort 50 members across the cultural and creative sector.
“Our target is to reach out to over 150 artists within the period whereby 60 percent will be young women and 40 percent young men respectively,” said Kapyepye.

Source: http://nyasatimes.com/nico-group-pump-in-k45-million-sponsorship-towards-cosomas-copyright-fund-for-creative-industry-training