Monday 7 April 2014

IPcommentator

Copyright-based industries boost Nigeria's latest GDP: Time for a comprehensive study (Part I)


It is obvious that this Leo is neither an economist nor a statistician; this is why he admires those, with or without such titles, who keep it simple for us all to understand. So what does he or does he not understand? 

Largest economy in Africa by GDP

Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics (by the way, a decent website) has officially announced that the country's re-based GDP figure stands at $509.9 billion USD. As expected, many have rightly focused on the continental significance of this news - which ranks Nigeria as the largest economy - but Afro-IP's interest is to find out whether any of the economic activities is related to any form of intellectual property. 

Creative industries significant to GDP

Out of the existing models, this Leo prefers the classification, 'copyright-based industries', used by WIPO albeit not significantly different from the UK's 'creative industries' approach. The UK is notable in this field since it has taken this area of the economy seriously and provided much-needed thought-leadership. In case you wish to read a recent international analysis of the creative industries, see UNESCO's Creative Economy Report 2013. (NB: in this two-part post, 'creative industries' and 'copyright-based industries' are used interchangeably).

Key GDP figures attributed to creative industries

The standout sector is the Motion Pictures, Sound Recordings and Music Production ("Entertainment") with a re-based value of: 0.88% (2010), 1.01% (2011), 1.20% (2012) and 1.42% (2013). This sector has never featured in Nigeria's GDP figures, hence its inclusion for comparison with other sectors over the years. The 2013 Nominal GDP growth rate figures for the Entertainment and Publishing sectors are 33.49% and 14.06% respectively. 

Copyright and other forms of IP will undoubtedly be created or exploited, in one way or the other, in sectors including Food, Beverage and Tobacco (17.24%), Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (27.23%), Telecommunications and Information Services (12.25%), Chemical and Pharmaceutical Products (16.48%). To avoid oversight, see the NBS's presentation here (pages 25 and 26).

Afro Leo is generally curious: "Nigeria's IP registry (which would come under Public Administration) should be considered in the GDP figures. See how much revenue its UK counterpart generates here").

Where did the NBS get the data from?

Below are extracts from the NBS' methodology notes which can be viewed in full here.

10.2 PUBLISHING
The activity of publishing as a sector comprises book publishing, publishing of directories and mailing lists, publishing of newspapers, journals and periodicals, other publishing activities and software publishing. Publishing companies are becoming prominent in the Nigerian economy, in which companies like University Press Plc, Longman Nigeria Plc and Learn Africa among others are quoted in the Nigeria Stock Exchange.

Data Sources/Baseline Estimates: Data on publishing was obtained administratively from the Nigerian copyrights Commission.

Gross Output: The Gross turnover is made up of revenue from publishing services.

Intermediate consumption: This includes details of the cost structure including transportation fees, operational expenditure, minor repairs etc.

10.3 MOTION PICTURE AND SOUND RECORDING 
This activity falls under Section J –Information and Communication with Division 59 of ISIC rev 4. This comprises motion picture, video and television programme and sound recording activities.

Data Source/Baseline Estimates: Data is provided administratively through (Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN), Music Label Owners and Recording Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN), Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) and administrative data from NEXIM bank.

Gross Output: This is based on revenue generated/total sales from the number of movies and sound recordings produced. This also includes revenue generated from TV rights, royalties and fees. (As a result of piracy, a portion of revenues here was reapportioned from Wholesale and Retail trade)

Intermediate consumption: This is the detail on the cost structure of operating firms  including transportation fees, operational expenditure, minor repairs and maintenance,  extracted from their annual accounts.

10.4 BROADCASTING 
The sector comprises radio broadcasting, television programming and broadcasting activities. The activities of the sector which was formerly carried out by public corporation or limited liability companies owned by government, has observed a tremendous development, due to up surge of many private and public radio and television establishments.

Data Source/Baseline Estimates: Data on private sector broadcasting market participants were obtained administratively with the help of the Nigerian Communications Commission while data on public sector broadcasting was obtained from the Accountant-General’s Reports of the states and the federation.

Gross Output: Data on public corporation was derived on the basis of expenditure incurred from Accountants General’s reports; while the private component relies on revenue generated from services rendered e.g. advertisement. Therefore, the output of broadcasting is the addition of the private establishments and public corporations.

Intermediate consumption: These are details of the cost structure of market participants which include transportation fees, operational expenditure, minor repairs and maintenance etc.

11. ARTS ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION
This sector is contained in ISIC Rev. 4, Section R, division 90-93, and comprises four  different activities with different sources of data pulled together to make a sector. The activities are:

a. Creative, arts and entertainment,
b. Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities,
c. Gambling and betting activities and
d. Sports activities and amusement and recreation activities

Data Source/Baseline Estimates: Data is provided through the establishment survey (Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN), Music Label Owners and Recording  Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN), Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON, performing arts and promoters, for creative art and entertainment). For Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities, their sources of data came from the annual report of Accountants General of federal and state governments, because the activities are mostly managed by federal and state governments.

Also data on Gambling and betting activities was obtained from NBS Rebasing Survey on betting and gambling houses, recreational facilities and amusement parks, sport recreation and amusement. The informal sector component was covered by the National Manpower Survey.

Gross Output: Data on revenue generated was estimated in two categories: one as a market output and the second as non-market output (public establishments).

Intermediate consumption: Details of the cost structure were obtained from the annual
reports of firms.

This Leo's commentary is coming soon; in the meantime, see last year's post in which he unashamedly attempted to promote Africa's creative industries in the UK. 

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