Nigerian filmmaker Chris Ihidero has blamed the Nigerian Television Authority’s (NTA) lack of investment in quality content for the slowed growth of Nollywood.
“The failure of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, in creating quality free-to-air programming that gives a platform for Nigerian creatives to express themselves and be adequately compensated for it is the biggest obstacle in the path of true growth for Nollywood,” Ihidero said in a Facebook post.
Ihidero’s comments come on the heels of streaming giants Amazon Prime and Netflix reassessing their investments in the creation of Nigerian TV and film.
“Between 2021 and 2024, Netflix spent around $220million in Africa,” he noted. “In 8 years, Netflix spent around $23million in Nigeria. That’s a little less than $3million per year. This isn’t an insignificant amount of money, especially if you convert it to naira at the current rate of around $1=N1500. But it isn’t also a staggering amount of money.”
In comparison, Ihidero wrote, “The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) spends around $400 million yearly to deliver its public service mandate. The BBC spends around £1.5 billion annually for original content. In the US around 100 million homes rely solely on free-to-air content that cost them nothing for their audio-visual entertainment and education through ABC, NBC, CBS and others who spend billions of dollars yearly.”
Lost potential
“Imagine a world where the NTA spends as little as $10million a year on original TV/Film content. The Kemi Adetibas, the Kunle Afolayans, the Bolanle Austen-Peters’, the Niyi Akinmolayans of this world would not have needed Netflix or Amazon to bring us King of Boys, Anikulapo, Bashorun Gaa [House of Ga’a] and House of Secrets.”
He added: “The NTA would have been there to nurture and support their creativity from the outset of their careers such that some of those works would have ended up on NTA for millions of Nigerians to watch.”
He recalls the NTA’s time in the 1980s, when it produced TV dramas and comedies such as Cockcrow at Dawn and The Village Headmaster. “As a child growing up in 80’s Nigeria, the NTA served me quality programming on a daily basis,” he said. “Today, the NTA plays no part in my content consumption or creation as a filmmaker.”
According to him, the NTA and others like the Africa Independent Television (AIT) and Silverbird Television now demand independent producers to purchase airtime from them in order to showcase their work on their channels.
“The Nigerian Television Authority is the thing around Nollywood’s neck. There are no substitutes for investment in quality content on free-to-air platforms,” he said. He believes that industry’s growth is being stifled by the NTA’s failure to fulfill its statutory obligations. “This is the NTA’s statutory obligation and it has failed at it for decades.”
