Nigerian Entertainment
industry: Gold Mine amidst Pebbles
By Yemi Olakitan
The
huge potentials in Nigerian entrainment sector are no news to many people all
over the world; the opportunities for growth and economic prosperity are
enormous. From the music industry, to the movie sector and even in the comedy
scene, Nigerian entertainment offers opportunities for unlimited wealth, job
creation, investments and poverty eradication. It has been described as a
goldmine that has not been fully tapped by the Federal Government. With little
government support and poor infrastructure in Nigeria, the Nigerian creative
artistes have been able to create a very dynamic industry and the prospects for
expansion is immense.
In
the music scene, Nigerian music is well known all over the world. Artistes such
as Fela Anikulapo Kuti, King Sunny Ade, and Ebenezer Obey have exported Nigeria
music far and near the developed nations. Today, particularly in Hip Pop music,
Nigerian artistes are breaking new international frontiers. They are entering
new collaborations with global superstars for example; D’banj and Kanye West
are in alliance, Psquare recently released a video with Akon, 2 Face and
R.Kelly are also reportedly working together. Not too long ago, Fela was on Broadway.
The play ‘Fela’ is still being performed in theatres all over the United
States. Our artists are daily gaining popularity in Europe and the America and
our movies are been shown in every corner of the world. Asa has gained national prominence in France
and she is considered as one of the finest musical acts in that country, not to
mention Sade Adu, Ceel and many others.
The release of the movie Ije directed by
Chineze Anyene saw Nigerian movies wining prizes in film festivals around the
world. The success of Figurine is another example of Nigeria’s success in the
entertainment world. Figurine, the movie was reported to have generated over 12
million naira in box office revenue with major reviews in international media.
Nigerian movies and artistes are increasingly becoming popular around the world.
It has been said that Nollywood releases more movies in a year than both Bollywood
and Hollywood combined. The industry is rated as the number 3rd in
global film making after the American and the Indian movie sectors. According to a UNESCO report, the
Nigerian movie industry has overtaken Hollywood and closed the gap on Indian to
be the global leader in the number of movies released each year. It is the
third largest movie industry in the world. The movie industry in Nigeria
creates jobs for about 200,000 Nigerians and provides up to I million indirect
jobs for Nigerians. The entertainment industry in Nigeria holds huge promise of
millions of fortune for possible foreign investments for the benefit of the
Nigerian people and yet many problems limit its advancement. It seems that in the coming generation
of the world will have to look up to Nigeria as the next haven of the creative
and entertainment enadeavour. It is clearly evident that our industry is among
the most dynamic in the world today with growth potentials that we cannot
adequately enumerate as at yet.
However, as lucrative as the sector may look, it
still has many challenges that hold it back and these challenges may scuttle
any roughrider investor who does not take calculated steps before stepping into
the sector. Some of them are the lack of copyrights, intellectual property
rights, a loose and uncoordinated market system, an undefined distribution
channel, poor government support and lack of infrastructure. These are some of
the problems that confront the entertainment sector in Nigeria.
In a chat with iconic King
Sunny Ade, he said that piracy remained one of the hardest problems in Nigerian
entertainment. He mentioned that this was responsible for the disappearance of
foreign record companies such EMI and Decca from the Nigerian music scene.
According to him, this record companies could not cope with high level of
piracy in Nigeria and the government inability to reduce piracy in Nigerian
creative industries. Speaking
further, KSA consider piracy as one of the reasons why people do not want to invest
money into entertainment and why foreign investment continues to elude Nigeria
in that sector. ‘‘Nigeria only has record labels and not record companies and
this does not help the sector. We need record companies and not labels. Record
companies take care of the album from the studio to distribution, to media and
promotion. They ensure that the artistes get their royalties. Today, we no
longer have that. All we have are individuals trying to do it by themselves.’’
‘‘I released an album tagged the Grace of God by 28th
of December, but it was already all over the streets by 24th of
December. The pirates flooded the market with their own products. My fans
invite me and pay for my performance, that is why I am still on the scene
otherwise pirates are having a filled day.’’
Legendary
actress, jokes Silva also pointed out that one reason why Hollywood is ahead of
Nollywood is that Hollywood has so many structures that are not available to us
here in Nigeria. For instance, when they release a movie, it goes to about
3,000 cinemas simultaneously. We cannot do that yet. Our distribution system at
the moment is so informal that it is difficult for any serious investor to take
us serious. At the moment, how many cinema screens do we have? Lets say
Silverbird has about six, the palms has about six, may be about 20 all over the
country compared to thousands that other industries such as Hollywood or the Indian
Bollywood have. If you take video as our first window of opportunity and our
distribution system is so porous, then pirates will have a filled day. So,
until we have a well-regulated, worldwide distribution network, we will remain
number 3rd.
Speaking further, she said that epileptic
electricity supply in the country is a major problem in Nollywood. ‘ The producers usually brings a
generator along in order to shoot a scene and he will position it far away so
that its noise does not interfere with the recording. However, the neighbours
also do not have lights and they are also on generators and they are not part
of your production team. You cannot go and meet them and say, please can you
turn off your generators because I am shooting a movie. It does not concern
them. We need dedicated studios
and zones where we can shoot our movies without that kind of limitations.’’ She
said.
Even comedians complain about piracy.
Their CDs are massively pirated and distributed without gains for their
pockets. In a chat with ace comedian Julius Agwu, he said, piracy is the first
problem of the industry. He lamented that new comedians are coming out
everywhere and they use your jokes. I work hard to get my jokes, I am in my observatory
tower, in my toilet, bedroom, kitchen and I observe what is going on and I
create my jokes.’’ He said.
It is very encouraging that
the federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan in response to these
problems released US$200 million as the Entertainment industry Fund. Many
artistes have however, complained about their inability to access the fund. However, those within the industry have now started lamenting their
inability to access the fund. The frustration comes from the hurdles placed by
the bank, which has made it difficult for any of the artistes to gain access to
the fund, which was meant to be a loan facility. Part of the hurdles is said to
be the requirement of collateral that are in most times too huge and beyond the
reach of the loan seekers, many of whom are producers of movies in the country.
Apart from this, there are serious bureaucratic bottlenecks hindering the
effective utilization of the loan. As a result, nobody within the sector has
been able to gain access to the loan.
The Nigerian Entertainment Fund
is being managed by Nigerian Export and Import Bank, NEXIM, which has since
released guidelines for the operation of the Nigerian creative and
entertainment Stimulation Loan Scheme. NCEILS as the bank refers to it. According
to the guidelines released by NEXIM, ‘
‘Applicant shall forward the
completed application form, supported with a copy of the project’s
brief/feasibility study and certified true copies of the following documents:
1) Company’s Incorporation Documents – (Certificate, Memorandum and Article of
Association, Forms CAC2 and CAC7) 2) Audited Statement(s) of Account /
Statement of Affairs /Cash flows 3) Budget(s),
Bills of Quantity, Pro-forma Invoice(s), etc, where applicable 4) Completion Bond, where applicable 5 Proprietary
Rights / Syndicated Rights, where applicable 6) Collateral security /
Intellectual Property Assets that are properly patented, trademarked,
copyrighted, etc to be pledged/assigned 7) Executed Contracts/Agreements (rental/lease,
Retail/Sales Agency, Cast
/Crew,
etc 8) Any other document that may be required by NEXIM.’’
In a chat with arts critic Tajudeen
Sowole, he said, most Nigerian artistes cannot meet up with these stringent
requirements since the Nigerian entertainment industry is largely underfunded, uncoordinated
and poorly regulated. For several years. Nigerian artistes have continued to
complain about their inability to access the fund. According to Sowole, only the very big Nigerian
entertainment industrialists will be able to access the fund because of the
conditions attached. Perhaps, the Nigerian government should move a step
forward by setting up a Nigerian Entertainment Council that would be
responsible for the regulation and control of the industry so that the problems
of piracy, uncoordinated distribution system could be eradicated. The present
situation where piracy reigns and Nigerians entertainers cannot maximize the
benefits of their creative investments as a result of poor distribution
channels will not enable them
access the fund. Otherwise, the Fund will remain a mere campaign gimmick by the
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan as some have opined in the
sector.
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