Nollywood is Nigeria’s answer to Hollywood, Bollywood and all the ‘woods’ of this world.
The fact that doing business in a developing country such as Nigeria is a daunting exercise need not be over emphasized. Apart from lack of basic infrastructure reliable power supply, good roads, and transport facilities; there is widespread corruption and bureaucratic incompetence. Although Nigeria, home to over 150 million Africans could be the largest market in Sub-Saharan Africa, the vast majority of this population lives at the bottom of the income pyramid. So how do you create and grow an industry for home movies in such a difficult environment?
This was what the Nigerian artists, directors, financiers, and other supporters did in the last decade or so. The French Cultural Centre in Nigeria actually brought French movie makers to study their methods and they asked. How on earth can you make a movie in seven days, at low cost, enjoyed by over half the population of your continent and still get noticed by the world.? And at a profit too.
From various observations, we have come to appreciate that those who insisted on making a living from this way of life had to rethink how things are done in this industry.
Since film making was their purpose, they set out to combine raw talent with amateur technology and improvised all the way. They borrowed, begged but they did not steal. Instead of building studios they used people’s homes that were already ‘in set’. Most of the productions were financed by individuals, families and friends there were no institutional investors or government guarantees. They latched on to the already existing commercial distribution system for everything to distribute and market their products. Films that were already released carried the advertisements of those in the pipeline. And several other innovative approaches were used to bypass critical constraints.
Is this a transferable model? Yes the Nigeria music industry is said to have adopted the same strategy with huge success. So we ask the question: could “Nollywood Paradigm” be the development model Nigeria and in deed the rest of Africa has been waiting for? While we continue to ponder on this, one clear lesson has emerged. The fact that the home movie industry in Nigeria has grown to become one of the bright spots in the nation’s economy is a demonstration that it is possible to make progress even in the face of non-existent opportunity.
