BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN THE FILM INDUSTRY Spotlight on Nigeria’s Nollywood - Awoko

Majority of the films in the Sierra Leone market today are produced in Nigeria. There is need for more private investment in the industry to showcase Sierra Leone’s rich culture and tourism. This article is an eye opener for aspiring entrepreneurs in Sierra Leone.
The Nigerian video feature film industry is sometimes colloquially known as Nollywood, having been derived as a play on Hollywood the American film industry and Bollywood its Indian counterpart.
The cinema of Nigeria grew quickly in the 1990s and 2000s to become the second largest film industry in the world in terms of number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of the United States and behind the Indian film industry.
Nigerian cinema is Africa’s largest movie industry in terms of both value and the number of movies produced per year. Although Nigerian films have been produced since the 1960s, the rise of affordable digital filming and editing technologies has stimulated the country’s video film industry.
The first Nigerian films were made by filmmakers such as Ola Balogun and Hubert Ogunde in the 1960s, but they were frustrated by the high cost of film production. However, television broadcasting in Nigeria began in the 1960s and received much government support in its early years. By the mid-1980s every state had its own broadcasting station. Law limited foreign television content so producers in Lagos began televising local popular theater productions. Many of these were circulated on video as well, and a small scale informal video movie trade developed. “Nollywood was a child of necessity” says Professor Ahmed Yerima, theatre artiste and former Artistic Director of The National Dance Troupe of Nigeria. He said: “There were very few television stations and we got to a point where the TV stations that existed needed you, the producer, to get sponsorship for your productions.”
But for Obby Patrick Ebewo, Nigerian born and American based film scholar, “The collapse of movie-theatre going culture in the 1980s caused by incessant harassment of innocent citizen by criminals, the country’s economic downturn and various problems affecting celluloid film production, gave rise to video film.”
The implication of this new development, according to Yerima, was that fast thinking and business minded entrepreneurs cashed into the opportunity provided by this yearning need; and aided with the arrival of VHS tapes embarked on a business trial and experimentation that was to transform the continent’s entertainment turf.
Nollywood films are popular in Nigeria because they have indigenous contents and address issues relevant to a mass audience. He adds: “through an amalgam of narrative techniques (African story lines) and western technology, these films document and re-create socio-political and cultural events that occur within and beyond the borders.”
Supporting this view, Professor Onookome Okome of the School of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta, Canada states: “in Nigeria, Nollywood is popular because it speaks to aspects of social life that many people live. It speaks to and debates social and cultural anxieties the way no other media had done before.”
The release of the box-office movie Living in Bondage in 1992 by NEK Video Links owned by Kenneth Nnebue in the eastern city of Onitsha set the stage for rapid growth in the industry. The story goes that Kenneth Nnebue had an excess number of imported video cassettes which he then used to shoot the first film. The huge success of this film set the pace for others to produce other films or home videos. Through the business instincts and ethnic links of the Igbo and their dominance of distribution in major cities across Nigeria, home videos began to reach people across the country. Nollywood exploded into a booming industry that pushed foreign media off the shelves, an industry now marketed all over Africa and the rest of the world. The use of English rather than local languages served to expand the market and aggressive marketing using posters, trailers, and television advertising also played a role in Nollywood’s success.
One of the first Nigerian movies to reach international renown was the 2003 release ‘Osuofia in London,’ starring Nkem Owoh, the famous Nigerian comedy actor. Modern Nigerian cinema’s most prolific auteur is Chico Ejiro (“Mr. Prolific”), who directed over 80 films in an 8-year period and brags that he can complete production on a movie in as little as three days. Ejiro’s brother Zeb is the best-known director of these videos outside of the country.
Most movies are not produced in studios. Video movies are shot on location all over Nigeria with hotels, homes, and offices often rented out by their owners and appearing in credits in the movies. The most popular locations are shot in the cities of Lagos, Enugu, and Abuja. Many of the big producers have offices in Surulere, Lagos.
Nigerian directors adopt new technologies as soon as they become affordable. Editing, music, and other post-production work are done with common computer-based systems.
The primary distribution centers are Idumota Market on Lagos Island, and 51 Iweka Road in Onitsha in Anambra State. Currently, Nigerian films outsell Hollywood films in Nigeria and many other African countries. Some 300 producers turn out movies at an astonishing rate – somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 a year. The films go straight to DVD and VCD discs. Thirty new titles are delivered to Nigerian shops and market stalls every week, where an average film sells 50,000 copies. A hit may sell several hundred thousand. Discs sell for two dollars each, making them affordable for most Nigerians and providing astounding returns for the producers.
Most of the films are produced by independent companies and businessmen. However, the big money for films in Nigeria is made in the direct-to-video market. The average film costs between US$17,000 and US$23,000, is shot on video in just a week – selling up to 150,000 – 200,000 units nationwide in one day. With this type of return, more and more are getting into the film business there. UNESCO declared that Nollywood has the largest production of films in the world, with the UNDP/UNCTAD 2010 Report valuing the industry in 2008 at USD 2.75bn.”
By most reports, Nollywood is a $5-billion industry. And it keeps growing. According to Frank Ikegwuonu, author of Who’s Who in Nollywood, about “1,200 films are produced in Nigeria annually.” And more and more filmmakers are heading to Nigeria because of “competitive distribution system and a cheap workforce.” Further, Nigerian films seem to be better received by the market when compared to foreign films because “those films are more family oriented than the American films.”
Nigerian movies are available in even the most remote areas of the continent. The last few years have seen the growing popularity of Nigerian films among the people of African diaspora in both Europe, North America and the Caribbean.
Many Nollywood movies have themes that deal with the moral dilemmas facing modern Africans. Some movies promote the Christian or Islamic faiths, and some movies are overtly evangelical. Nollywood’, continues to improve in craft, volume and value of output, generating increasing interest and patronage locally and from around the world.
Along the growth curve, the industry experienced drawbacks in the areas of funding, equipment, skills-set, quality and piracy.
Nollywood films are being sold in landmark retail establishments in the western hemisphere such as 7-Eleven stores. Indeed the Nigerian movie industry has derived mass appeal in Africa and among the African Diaspora. Young first and second generation African immigrants in the west are introducing their high school mates, universities, and graduate school colleagues to the Nollywood phenomenon. It is no secret that this movie industry has warmed up the hearts of other Africans to be more understanding of Nigerians and the baggage that we present. One could argue that Nollywood stars such as Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Sam Efe Loco, and Nkem Owoh have unwittingly promoted Nigeria and Africa positively like other cultural educational entertainment icons such as Fela and 2Face Idibia.
Despite the aforementioned strides, the responsibilities on the shoulders of Nollywood cinematography are enormous. As the largest Black owned, controlled, and sponsored vessel to depict African and Black culture, education, and entertainment, the onus on them is great. The reality is that the Nigerian and Ghanaian movie industry and their tributaries surpass the reach of Black Entertainment Television BET, Centric TV, and TV One which are African American mass media enterprises that are located in the United States.
The business in film industry is very wide. It includes directing, producing, script writing, editors, costume designers, photography, music, sales executives, engineers, transcriptionists, makeup artists, hair dressers etc
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country with a population of 170 million. This makes one in every six African a Nigerian. It is also one of the largest oil producers on the continent creating huge inflows of foreign income. The country hold huge potential and the government is focusing on developing the non-oil economy and tackling corruption and red tape. Despite persistent problems in the investment climate, the international business community increasingly sees Nigeria as the central driver of a vast African market that remains the last under-developed commercial market in the world.
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John F Fowler. MCIM, is an International marketing and business consultant, Motivational/Empowerment speaker and Author. He is currently the founder and president of Trinity Empowerment Center a non-governmental organization with a vision to empower youths in starting and sustaining small businesses in developing countries. For comments or questions send email to johnffowler@yahoo.com, or johnffowler1@gmail.com.

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