Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, the Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Film Academy, has said that Nigerian movie producers despite making the most movies per year on the continent, are among the poorest filmmakers in Africa.
Anyiam-Osigwe made this known at a brunch event themed, ‘Understanding the Value of Motion Picture Ecosystem for Brands’, where she said, “With the number of films produced per year in Nigeria, Nigerian producers are among the poorest on the continent compared to their counterparts in other countries.”
According to Anyiam-Osigwe, a major reason film producers in Nigeria are not well paid is because of the lack of collaboration with brands who could support their projects.
In an interview with Saturday Beats, she said, “When you look at the investment of time, effort, and other things that our producers put into their content and what they are paid for this content, it means that we are rich in content but poor in receivables. So it may mean that we aren’t producing the high end quality that should give us a higher return. But at the same time, if our ecosystem was working, because films don’t just make money from sales; they make money from brands and so many different other aspects, the producers will be in a better position.
“You hear that Nigerian producers made about 3000 or 4000 films a year and then you hear the figures of the returns on investment; then you hear about the American film industry that made about $22 billion. Now something is wrong with what we are doing and our understanding of how to distribute our films.”
Anyiam-Osigwe also said that while the quantity might be something of note, the quality of films produced would determine the monetary returns filmmakers would enjoy while also drawing attention to areas Nollywood needs to improve on.
“I think that both work, but I think we need to work more on our quality. Like I always say, our foundations have to be right, so the scripting of the average Nigerian film has to be upscaled to a much higher level that will make it easier for producers to achieve better quality products,” she added.
Osigwe, who is also the founder of the Africa Movie Academy Awards noted the important role scripts play in the delivery of quality content to movie audiences. She said, “It is important for a script to be well written because when a script is professionally written, it would be easy for a director to interpret; easy for a producer to produce; easy for the cinematographer to handle; and also easy for the creative director to handle the creative aspect of the film.”