Corruption in Nolllywood: The Diversions and Misappropriations of Grants and Loans in the Nigerian Film Industry

 

Corruption in Nolllywood: 

The Diversions and Misappropriations of Grants and Loans in the Nigerian Film Industry

The socioeconomic, sociocultural and political institutionalization of corruption in Nigeria has done collateral damage to the Nigerian society with widespread administrative incompetence in public service and political corruption is the cause of the maladministration in the Nigerian government.

Political corruption is the anathema of democracy and good governance in Nigeria with brazen corrupt practices from the local government to the Office of the President; from Alausa to Abuja. Every workplace is infected of the virus of the epidemic of corruption with corrupt and incompetent public officials posing and posturing as Smart Alecs, but they disregard the values and virtues of dignity, integrity and nobility.
There is widespread culture of conceit and deceit in the Nigerian society. Being fraudulent is no longer shocking!

Corruption is now widely reported in the Nigerian entertainment industry with several cases of unprofessional sharp practices during film and TV productions.
The entertainment industry has become a conduit for money laundering in the camouflage of international events and productions used for illicit transfers of funds and tax evasions.
We should not sweep the corruption in the entertainment industry under the red carpet.
Fraudulent activities should be exposed and reported no matter the rank and file of the entertainers and their sponsors.

The Diversions and Misappropriations of Grants and Loans in Nolllywood and the Nigerian Film Industry by  filmmakers with questionable integrity.

The recent statement by popular Nigerian comedian and film/TV producer, Bright Okpocha popularly known as "Basketmouth" that several millions of dollars given to some of the selected Nigerian filmmakers by Netflix for film productions were diverted and misappropriated (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/12/netflix-they-spend-10-on-movie-use-others-to-buy-cars-houses-basketmouth-slams-nollywood-producers) did not surprise me, because there have been previous reports on corrupt practices of filmmakers in Nigeria.
I have been informed about diversions and misappropriations of grants and loans for film and TV productions by the beneficiaries since 2001 to date.
The funds provided as soft loans with low interest rates by the Ecobank were misappropriated. The AccessNolly Fund of the Access Bank and NollyFund of the Bank of Industry (BoI) of Nigeria were diverted and misappropriated and the grants from the Project ACT Nollywood were also misappropriated by some of the beneficiaries. The film productions were compromised, badly done or abandoned.

A former Regional Audio-visual Attache at the French Embassy in Nigeria knew that some of the funds from the Fonds Images Afrique grants given for a short documentary film on Lagos and two other productions were diverted and misappropriated
See Nollywood and the French Connection on
https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2022/06/nollywood-and-french-connection.html

He gave me the details and I watched the documentary film.
"This is not Lagos", I said and smirked. But I did not report the disclosures. The same Regional Audio-visual Attache later told the director of the documentary film that he suspected me of being an American spy. I was amused.
I laughed and dismissed the suspicion. I have been identified sitting with certain Americans and a prominent Ghanaian politician on exile in Nigeria during an official meeting for a family planning project in Nigeria at the Eko Hotel and Suites on Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria. One of the Americans who was my namesake then was later accused of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Ghana by the military regime of Jerry Rawlings in the 1980s. I was only contracted as a public health illustrator through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
I have stopped communication with this French Regional Audio-Visual Attache who was later transferred to Burundi.
He told me that a particular young filmmaker misappropriated the funds given to him and used only the remainder to produce a feature that they rejected. But his colleague who did not misappropriate funds produced a good mystical romantic drama that was accepted by Canal France International in 2009 and broadcast to all television channels in French-speaking Africa under the title "La Métamorphose".

The details of the cases of the diversions and misappropriations, including the filmmakers involved are available.

- - by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
The Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
First book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.
Distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.

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#netflix
#entertainment
#filmindustry
#profuction
#moneylaundering
#tax
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#nigeria
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#french

The Nigerian Creative Economy: Beyond Nollywood and the Entertainment Industry

The Nigerian Creative Economy: Beyond Nollywood and the Entertainment Industry

Overview

Nigeria - Media and Entertainment

According to PwC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook for 2022-2026, Nigeria’s media and entertainment industry is one of the fastest growing creative industries in the world. It has the potential to become one of the country’s exports, with projected annual consumer growth rate of 8.8% (CAGR). PwC indicates that in 2021, Nigeria’s film industry contributed 2.3% ($660 million (239 billion naira)) to GDP. They project that the industry will increase its export revenue earnings to over $1 billion. The motion picture and music combined contributed about $1.8 billion (730 billion naira) to the country’s GDP in 2020.

The country’s television and video market grew 7.49% to $806 million in 2020, up from $732 million in 2018. The industry is projected to earn about $900 million in 2023. The market is driven by subscription revenue, which accounted for 72.26% of total TV/video sector revenue in 2018. TV advertising accounts for 21.31% of total revenue, while physical home videos account for 5.33%. Subscription-based movie streaming are very popular in Nigeria, attracting players like Netflix, Iroko TV, and Startimes. Although Netflix subscription has long been available in Nigeria, they made their official debut in Nigeria in February 2020, joining several major distributors of filmed content in Nigeria. In August 2022, Amazon Prime Video announced the launch of the localized version of its streaming service in Nigeria. According to an IMF report, the industry is projected to generate an estimated revenue of $10.8 billion by 2023 and account for 1.4% of GDP. The report indicates that in 2020, Nigeria overtook South Africa in pay TV subscription as the country currently has over 6.9 million pay TV households as of 2021.  It is projected to grow to upwards of 7.4 million by 2023. A new study by Research and Markets, shows that Nigeria will contribute about 10 million, or 21.2%, of Africa’s pay television subscribers by 2025.

The music sector of Nigeria’s entertainment industry also recorded significant growth over the years. Stakeholders include artists, musicians, producers, promoters, managers, distributors, and marketers. As of 2021, the music industry employed about a million people and generated over $8 billion for the economy. In the past six years, the growing numbers of new production studios and artists enabled a more vibrant and self-sustaining industry, producing globally recognized music. In this environment, Nigerian musicians have developed a vast spectrum of music genres. The industry has won prestigious awards with artists like Wizkid and Burnaboy claiming Grammy awards, attracting more and more investments..

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/nigeria-media-and-entertainment

Which creative industries drive the creative economy of every country?

The industries are the following:

 Advertising, architecture, arts and crafts, design, fashion, film, video, photography, music, performing arts, publishing, research and development, software, computer games, electronic publishing and TV/radio.

As Dr. Reuben Abati said on The Morming Show of Arise TV on Thursday, November 23, 2023;

We cannot talk about growing the creative industry without a Cultural Policy.

Do we have a Cultural Policy?

Do we even have a Film Policy for Ñollywood and the Nigerian film industry?

Ñollywood is actually a dysfunctional film industry without a film market.

Without an insurance policy.

Without a single film commission.

Let me just go straight to my critical basics of the economics of the creative industry in Nigeria with an important query. And that's all. There is no need for a thesis on the economic crisis of Ñollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

Currently, the Nigerian film industry is a big canoe with holes and different sorts of characters with different agendas; including the real creative professionals, jobbers and of course the opportunists. 

They will make a big 

Kafkaesque and Soyinkasque drama.

Only the creatives with bankable assets and products can grow the creative economy. And not those who are expendable liabilities in the creative industry; that collected loans from the Bank of Industry of Nigeria and other banks and cannot account for the loans due to misappropriations and diversions of the millions of naira they collected. 

What happened to the N3 Billion Grant of the Project ACT Nollywood launched by the administration of former, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR?

Who were the benefitiaries?

Where are the assets and products of the beneficiaries?

Where are the 75 movies produced?

Where are the students trained in filmmaking?

Until there is a forensic report on the Project ACT Nollywood Grant, any establishment for an investment in the creative industry to grow the creative economy by the federal government lacks accountability.

Read the article on 

How The Project ACT Nollywood Grant Was Embezzled - by 

*Eyengho, is President, Association of Nollywood Producers, ANCOP, and Vice President, International Federation of Film Producers Associations, FIAPF.

http://www.metroparrot.net/2015/08/how-n3-billion-project-act-nollywood.html

The federal government should have a forensic report on the previous government investments in the creative industry before the establishment of a new initiative for the acceleration of creative economy.

- Ekenyerengozi MichaeI Chima,

Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series.

Founder/President,

ZENITH International Film Festival,

https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2023/11/zenith-international-film-festivals.html

PAYFAST Decentralized Fintech Service

PAYFAST Decentralized Fintech Service

Business model:SaaS

Customer:B2C / C2C

International Digital Post Network Limited is developing iPost mobile video app for news, entertainment and social networking that was  shortlisted for the Fund for Internet Research and Education – FIRE Africa Awards 

(https://fireafrica.org/about_fire)

 for tech innovation in 2014 and currently developing PAYFAST  fintech app for decentralization of financial transactions between all the users for borrowing and lending; buying and selling and funding their Small Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) for the retail industry in Nigeria with over 39 million MSMEs.

The MSMEs industry in Nigeria is estimated to be worth $100 billion.

The SMEs sector is the backbone of major developed economies, as well as important contributors to employment, economic and export growth. In Nigeria, SMEs contribute 48% of national GDP, account for 96% of businesses and 84% of employment.

Both iPost mobile video app and PAYFAST will need OneLiquidity apps integration for payments in crypto currency, eCommerce payments and crypto wallets

PAYFAST, is a totally decentralized loan app that will most likely kill all the loan sharks and may compel other fintech services and banks to reduce their interest rate on loans to single digit amount or lose all their applicants for loans to PAYFAST that allows users to borrow and lend to themselves with only 5% interest rate.

There will be PAYFAST Cooperatives in every community with the PAYFAST Business Fund to fund the enterprises of members of the Cooperatives with loans from N50, 000 minimum to N1 million maximum. 

PAYFAST ultimate goal is to reduce poverty by 80% by wealth creation and distribution with Nigeria as the launch pad before other countries.

PAYFAST is the solution to the poor funding of SMEs; exploitation of underprivileged low income earners by loan sharks and banks and slow integration of advanced digital apps.

The primary purpose of PAYFAST Cooperatives is financial inclusion for (i) universal access to financial services;

(ii) providing basic  financial services (iii) access to livelihood and skill development, (iv) financial literacy and education for the economic empowerment of the underprivileged. 

What is Financial Inclusion?

Financial inclusion refers to the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to disadvantaged and low-income segments of society. In this way, they are being included in the financial services industry.

1.7 billion

adults worldwide lack access to basic financial services

63 %

is the amount of financially included adults in developing economies

Why is Financial Inclusion Important?

Without access to basic financial services, people in poverty are unable to perform many common functions that could drastically improve their lives. When they are financially included, they can start to build assets and take other steps to improve their standard of living. They can save money, qualify for a loan to expand a business; build a house; have a safe way to make payments to schools, medical services and so much more.

Contact:

Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.

Reply To The Threat From PalmCredit, A Chinese Capitalist Loans Company in Nigeria

CUSTOMER NAME:...........................................................

PHONE NUMBER:..............................................................

THE ABOVE CLIENT HAS DUPED A CHINESE LENDING COMPANY (PALM CREDIT) BY COLLECTING A LOAN AND REFUSING TO PAYBACK. THE PUBLIC IS ADVISED TO TAKE CAUTION OF HIM/HER, AS HE/SHE HAS PROVEN TO BE DUBIOUS UNTIL HE PAYS BACK THE COMPANY'S MONEY. HE WILL SOON BE APPREHENDED. 

INFORM HIM/HER TO PAY THE COMPANY'S MONEY. 

(PALM CREDIT].

NOTE: IN LESS THAN 24HRS WE ARE SENDING THE ABOVE MESSAGE OUT TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS, KINDLY DO THE NEEDFUL TODAY.

 

Hello Palmcredit!

Do you know what it means to dupe?

When I have been paying over 2% default fees on the loan of N21, 000 + and now over N28, 000, including the default fees.

When I have a reply to my plea for extra time to pay back the loan.

Your threat shows how idiotic you half  educated Nigerian errand boys and girls of Chinese capitalists are.

Chinese who claim to be ruled by a Communist Party in their country, China come to Africa to practice the worse form of Capitalism and scamming the corrupt and incompetent governments in Africa.

Another Chinese company, StarTimes has a questionable partnership with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) without declaring any profit to the NTA and the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture; National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) without verified forensic audit in over 11 years of operation in Nigeria.

I have to publish your threat and my reply on my Nigerians Report Online and 247 Nigeria on Twitter. And I am calling for  a probe on all the Chinese companies in Nigeria and search of all the warehouses of Chinese companies in Nigeria within the next 48 hours.

Sincerely,

EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima 

The CEO,

International Digital Post Network Limited.

Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 

247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter

https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi