The Africa International Documentary Festival Foundation (AFIDFF), a Pan-African organisation dedicated to documenting and promoting Africa’s cultural heritage, has expressed readiness to partner with the Kebbi State Government to train young people in digital content creation, documentation and promotion of the state’s rich cultural heritage and tourism potentials.
The Director-General of AFIDFF, Malame Mangzha, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja when the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Alhaji Yakubu Kebbi, paid a courtesy visit to the foundation to explore areas of collaboration.
Mangzha said AFIDFF had, for about a decade, been documenting Africa’s cultural heritage and history, in collaboration with international organisations, including UNESCO and Google Arts & Culture.
According to her, the foundation’s activities had focused on promoting heritage sites, monuments, festivals and other cultural assets across the continent.
AFIDFF, she noted, had previously documented the Argungu Fishing Festival, with videos from the coverage generating more than 18 million views across various digital platforms.
She said the development demonstrated the potential of Kebbi’s cultural festivals to attract global attention when professionally documented and strategically promoted.
Mangzha said AFIDFF had also built a community of more than 5,000 young content creators with diverse digital skills and was prepared to extend its training opportunities to youths in Kebbi State.
She explained that the proposed training would equip participants with skills to produce compelling and professional digital content capable of telling authentic stories about their communities, cultural heritage, festivals, tourism destinations and people to audiences within Nigeria and beyond.
“We want to see how we can collaborate with you in training your youth to be able to tell the stories of Kebbi. When the Argungu Fishing Festival, the one in Yauri or the one in Zuru is coming, we want the indigenes of Kebbi to be able to tell the stories of Kebbi,” she said.
Mangzha added that the initiative would extend beyond content creation to include responsible digital storytelling, cultural heritage promotion and opportunities for young people to monetise their creative skills and build sustainable livelihoods.
She noted that Kebbi State had numerous cultural festivals, historical sites and heritage assets capable of attracting greater national and international attention if properly documented and promoted by its young people.
The AFIDFF Director-General also proposed that Kebbi State could host a World Heritage Volunteer Programme in 2027, bringing together young people and international volunteers to experience, document and promote the state’s cultural heritage.
Responding, the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Alhaji Yakubu Ahmed Birnin Kebbi, said the visit was part of the state government’s efforts to build strategic partnerships and advocacy networks with organisations and individuals capable of promoting Kebbi State and projecting the achievements and development initiatives of the administration of Governor Nasir Idris.
The Commissioner expressed appreciation to AFIDFF for its previous documentation of the Argungu Fishing Festival, saying the successful coverage had demonstrated the enormous potential for deeper collaboration between the foundation and the state.
He invited AFIDFF to extend its activities to other major cultural events across Kebbi, including the Gwandu Emirate Horse-Racing Festival, Yauri Emirate Rigata Cultural Festival and Zuru Emirate Uhola Festival.
According to him, the festivals and other cultural assets deserved greater national and international visibility.
Yakubu said Kebbi State was endowed with enormous agricultural, cultural and tourism potentials, as well as abundant human resources, stressing that the state government remained committed to promoting these assets while investing in infrastructure, human capital development and economic growth.
He said the proposed partnership with AFIDFF would provide an important platform for Kebbi youths to tell the story of their state from their own perspectives and use digital media to project its cultural heritage, tourism attractions, investment opportunities and development potential to a wider global audience
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