Nigerian’s movie industry, Nollywood, is a certified $5.1 billion (£3bn) industry and along with other star performing sectors like music, telecommunications and Information technology, combined to muscle Nigeria’s economy into a $509.9bn (£307.6bn) powerhouse thereby over taking South Africa has Africa’s largest basin of economic activity.
The figures validated by the IMF and World Bank captured
Nollywood under “Motion pictures, sound recording and music production valuing
the County’s vast new entertainment sector at $55bn (£33bn). This sector is one of thirteen new
activities that have just been included in Nigeria’s new GDP figures.
What
is surprising, especially for financial observers and analysis is most thought
Nollywood was a $600m industry growing at 14% a year, some even thought it was
still a $250m industry, the value given to it by UNESCO in 2009 but being
validated as a $5.1bn industry as taken even the most optimistic observer by
surprise. For Nollywood and the Entertainment sector to reach a value of $55bn
in just over twenty years is nothing short of a miracle, especially if you
consider that the sector has been mainly driven by very small private sector organisations
and received little to no support from Government.
Government will stop paying lip service to this very important industry that
employs over a million Nigerian’s and is a major foreign exchange earner for
the Country and formulate and implement an effective strategy using the enormous
talent the Country has at home and abroad to drive this valuable industry
forward to even greater heights.
film industry with very strong historic, cultural, economic and political roots
in the USA and the UK and for a Company like Talking Drum Entertainment and
others based in the UK who earn substantial income from doing business with
Nigeria’s film sector its time the UK Government along with its lead agency the
British Film Institute took a very careful look at the opportunities this fast
growing industry affords the UK with the aim of exploiting them effectively.
The
new figures for Nollywood along with the overall GDP figures for Nigeria will
be announced shortly by the Co-ordinating Minister for Nigeria’s Economy, Mrs.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Dapo Oshiyemi
Email:
info@talkingdrum-entertainment.com
Website: www.talkingdrum-entertainment.com
Facebook: Talking Drum Entertainment
