The filmmaker, Niyi Akinmolayan, has underlined the need of developing Nigeria’s cinema culture to ensure long-term success, regardless of the availability of streaming services.
On Channels TV, Akinmolayan presented his next project, ‘Lisabi,’ a historical epic about a renowned Yoruba hero’s defiance against the Oyo empire.
The film, written by Lateef Adedimeji and directed by Akinmolayan, debuted on Netflix last week.
In the interview, Akinmolayan admitted that streaming services such as Netflix have encouraged Nigerian filmmakers to create high-quality content, resulting in higher earnings.
He did, however, emphasize that the government must use streaming services to develop a physical presence in the country and promote local talent and knowledge transfer.
“Netflix excites you to make good movies because you know it is going to generate a bit of income. You spend more. You spend more on technical quality and spend more on a lot of things. You have to train people to do the work. And what it does is that it improves everybody’s life on that chain,” he said.
“We are going to have a problem when they decide to pull out. As a country, we have not positioned ourselves to succeed with or without them.
“We should be growing the cinema culture not shutting it down. It makes no sense. In every other part of the world, cinema is rising. We should not say streamers are here let us stay away from cinemas. We should look out for local streaming, and distribution opportunities.
“The Nigerian government needs to be very intentional. The government can say ‘Netflix we love what you are doing. We are not going to tax you too much. But you have to establish something here in terms of the number of people to work with locally. You have to set up shop here’.
“While tons of people are working, there is knowledge transfer.”
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Showmax are the biggest streaming services in Nigeria with significant investment in the film industry.
Last year, Netflix revealed it invested over $23 million and licensed 283 titles in Nollywood between 2016 and 2023.
