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The can Film Festival has begun in the south of France, but the traditional launch pad for European cinema is seeing something different for twenty twenty five. This year, a bit of West Africa is coming to the Cote Dozersk. My Father's Shadow is making history as the first Nigerian film to be an official selection at the festival, showing the rising prominence of Nollywood on the world stage and investors
are starting to take notice. I'm bursting with excitement about the opportunities that I believe are going to come with this younger generation that are producing some really awesome stuff. On this week's Next Africa Podcast, we look at the rise of Nollywood and the asset managers looking to invest in the industry, betting on blockbuster returns for a new
wave of Nigerian cinema. I'm Jennifer Zabasaja and this is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each week from the continent driving the future of global growth with the context only Bloomberg can provide. Joining me to discuss this this week is our Nigeria Bureau Chief, that is Anthony os Brown. Anthony wrote a story on this that is now available, but he's here with us to talk through it. Maybe you can just start here and give us a bit of a sense of how big Nigeria's
film industry is. What are we looking like when we compare Nollywood to the bollywoods and the hollywoods.
Yeah, actually, when we compare Nollywood to Bollywood and Hollywood is actually not in terms of value, but my in terms of numbers. The Nigeria movie industry produce is and outage of stone official figures more than two thousand movies in a year, more than three four movies in a day. So there's a lot of movies to produce, and I think it's only second to Bollywood. It employs more than a million people, possibly directly and more indirectly.
It's estimated to be what's.
Close to maybe six point five billion dollars or thereabout, So yeah, it's a huge industry.
Most most of the.
People who operating that sector are self employed producers who started producing movies on their own and gradually is beginning to take shape. So it's quite a huge industry locally.
And it gains a lot of attention obviously online because people are talking about different films and the cultural aspects of it. Right, I think I've only seen one Nollywood film. I must admit, Yeah, you're in the minority.
It's quite huge online, mostly Nigerians induspheal. I love it because there is a means for them to connect to their homeland, to culture, to let their children see what it dislike to live in Nigeria and the cultural aspects of Nigeria. But even locally it's huge. Years ago, most people will watch Hollywood movies, but increasingly, if you put a Hollywood movie and a Nollywood movie in Nigerian cly mass, you'll get more people going towards the Nigerian movie than
the Hollywood movie. So increasingly is becoming dominant. Is quite popular on YouTube, and it's quite popular across Africa most African countries, and Nollywood dominates the TV screens. So yeah, and the stars are quite popular across Africa.
Do you find yourself watching a few films here and there in Hollywood films.
Yeah, I do.
I have my favorite producers and once I see their movies, I definitely want to watch. Maybe because of the quantity of movies producing Nollywood, not all of them have the quality that most people will want to watch, so they are specific producers for me that once I see I know the movies a bit, the quality is higher than the normal Nollywood movies, so I will want to watch. I'll definitely go out to watch them.
Yeah, and you mentioned the quality aspect of it, which which brings to light the likes of Netflix and Amazon that have also over time obviously become more and more entrenched and aware of what is happening with Nollywood. What have their investments meant for the industry.
One of the uniqueness of Nollywood is the fact that they produce very low cost movies. I don't think anywhere in the world you can get the low cost movies that Nollywood produces.
They can produce a.
Movie with even a thousand dollars, so that's five thouars, usually very low figures, so the shooting is done just as they can actually produce movies in two three days compared to most of the parts of the world. So that makes the quality of the movies they produce normally
not that good. But with Amazon prim and Netflix, they came in and then they put money invested money initially and that helped the producers do better qualitating movies, those that already had an idea of what qualitting movie is all about, and that improved the whole the standard in the industry, and I think changed somehow the direction of
the industry. So yeah, I think Amazon Prime and Netflix actually had a very and still have a very positive influence on the industry because if you want to get your movie on their platform, it has to be of a certain quality.
That's where it's interesting, especially based on your reporting, how some filmmakers and streamers are changing the way that they fund some of these films you mentioned a lot of them can be made for you one thousand dollars here and there. What's actually changed with the investment models and do we know yet what the impact will be.
I think sometime late last year Amazon Prime and the Netflix decided that they won't commission movies again, and that means not going to give a movie producers money to go ahead and produce the movie. But if you produce a good quality movie they like, they can buy it
from you. That provided an opportunity for asset managers to come into that industry in the sense that if you can get show that you have a contract with Netflix or his own prime that they will take your movie from you, then they will help you fund the movie. So that has changed the mode of funding for the industry in the sense that now movie producers know that
there's an end market for their product. Asset managers see that there's going to be a buy in the Netflix and an exam prime will pay for the right to air the movie, to stream the movies in dollars, and that also is a hedge against currency es. Locally, the Nira has been very volatile, so if you get any source of dog like income, it becomes very positive for
local players. So the asset managers are seeing it as an opportunity to end dollars by selling a product that has a good upside, because if the movie is very good and inns more money, then they could also make more money from it. So that change the model, and so is making asset managers look at that industry and putting money down for movies to be funded.
Of course, that has also improved.
The quality of movies that is being produced because they won't fund a movie that will not do well, so they set the standards. They make sure that the movie is of the right quality that their Netflix and Amazon Prime will be interested in taking it up and streaming. So yeah, so that has changed sort of. The industry is inspiring more people to push for quality movies that will in streaming.
Rise and Anthony, stick with us. When we come back, we're going to talk more about who's stepping in to invest and why they're hoping for blockbuster returns. We'll be right back. Welcome back. Today, we're talking about Nollywood as the Nigerian film industry continues to make waves on the international stage and also domestically. Anthony ose Brown, our Bloomberg Nigeria Bureau chief, is joining us this week to dig
into this. So, Anthony, you were explaining a bit more about how asset managers and new forms of capital are being injected into Nollywood and the industry more broadly. I wonder in your reporting and when you were speaking to some of these asset managers, what did they tell you that stuck out to you? Why are they so keen? Is it because of the currency hedging? Is it because they're themselves interested in Nollywood? I mean, what sort of anecdotes did they give you.
I think one of the things that's talk outs is the fact that they see these as a very viable source of long tandard income industry. So they're doing both depth and equity. On the equity side, they see that there's no end to it because I think of it their movies that were shot in nineteen sixties, nineteen seventies
that are still being shown today. So for them, once you have the intellectual property rights sorted out, that means a good movie how and where you have an equity interest, could become an endless source of income because if it's very good, maybe twenty years down the line, thirty years down down the line, people will stay want to buy the IP rights to either train it or to show it somewhere, or to maybe make redoing, a remake, a sequel, whatever. So once you put you get the right movie down,
there's an endless possibility to it. Then, besides the returns that they are making in terms of the investing in it, they are making returns of on the equity side, someone in one of the key find founders, they're making returns of thirty to forty percent return on equity, which is high.
You can hardly make that in any other.
Investments locally, So that's that's a big attraction for them. Also, and then of course the key part is they're hedging the ability to hedge your returns because you're getting paid in dollars. And if you're getting paid in dollars and you're funding in Naira, they're funding the movies in nira but getting paid in dollars, so there's an upside on
that contraint. And the currency has been weakening for the last one year, so one two, two years, so that for them, those are the key things that they're looking at and makes knowledge were quite attractive for them to put money in.
Yeah, it's sort of at net positive and even the model that you're outlining there, it seems like that is probably what a lot of the Hollywood studios we're thinking forty fifty years ago when they were creating these films that are still getting some of the returns as you were mentioning there, because they're caught like favorites or something like that. So the opportunity clearly is there, Anthony. It's
really fascinating. We started off talking today on the podcast about My Father's Story, which is premiering at the can Film Festival. This is very notable for people who have been following the Nollywood industry more broadly, when we look at a few years down the road, though, if we do continue to see maybe a bit more discernment about what's made and what's not, should we expect more presence
from Nollywood films in European and American cinemas. And I say that because you know, we also talk to Moabudu who has aspirations for that. Is that where we're headed?
Yeah, I think that's where we are headed.
I think we'll increasingly see Nollywood getting into the international main movie scene because of the increasing quality of the movies that I'm produce in with Netflix and Amazon Prime, they are increasingly being seen by non Nigerians.
If you check the go online and check the.
Statistics of who is watching Nollywood, you're increasingly seeing them appearing in countries that are not known to have a dominant Nigerian population or excizable Nigerian population. So increasingly it's gaining mainstream attraction. So yeah, and then they are beginning to because of the quality of movies, they are beginning to be seen in the right places, so we're likely to see them increasingly compete with the global players. And
then because they also want to gain international attention. They're beginning to go into collaborations and then that's where they asset managers come into because the asset managers want the movies to be globally competitive. They're also encouraging producers to go into partnerships with established stars in other parts of
the world, so they're looking at bringing. They're increasingly trying to get Nollywood African Nollywood stars into Nollywood movies even ahead of where they are trying to partner with Bollywood stars also in a bit to widen the appeal of Nollywood movies. So we're gregal going to see these collaborations and these movements where you'll see that Nollywood increasingly goes into mainstream globally and people start seeing Nollywood that's just
the way they purpublic see Hollywood Bollywood. But it's going to take some time, but I don't think that's too far.
Away that we're likely to see that happening very soon.
Yah, Anthony, can you give me a Nollywood film that I should watch?
The Black Book? Go watch it.
The Black Book is quite interesting. The Gangs of Legos that's on Amazon Prime, I think it's also very interesting.
I think those are good move and Nollywood movies.
I'm going to go for it. I love a good film, so it's nice to see this industry sort of taking off. Anthony, thank you so much for your reporting. It was really great to speak with you. We'll make sure to share your story in the show notes. Thanks Anthony. This program was produced by A. Bradley and tiwa Adebayo. Don't forget to follow and review this show wherever you usually get your podcasts. I'm Jennifer's Abasaga. Thanks as always for listening.