The Scramble for Nollywood and The Status of Lagos State
Everyone wants to have a bite of a hot pizza.
I hope the current scramble for Nollywood by the major streaming video services from America is not like the scramble for Africa by European powers (between 1881 and 1914).
Entertainment is Power
I wonder if the Nigerian government knows the dynamics of the overwhelming power of our entertainment industry beyond the glitz and razzmatazz and surplus economic returns.
The internet has become the most powerful vehicle of the entertainment industry since the inventions of the cinema and television.
The sociocultural, socioeconomic and sociopolitical powers of entertainment can define and determine the future of a nation and the civilization of the people.
That is why California is the richest state in the United States.
The economy of California, with a gross state product of $3.2 trillion as of 2019, is the largest sub-national economy in the world.
California is the home of Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Mountain View, the headquarters of the entertainment industry and of the Big Techs, including Apple, Alphabet and Meta. And is home to five of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people.
Without the internet, these Big Techs will not be Big and without entertainment, they will not become the biggest tech giants in the world.
Lagos is the powerhouse of the economy of Nigeria and the capital of the entertainment industry in Nigeria, the home of Nollywood and the home of Yabacon, the Silicon Valley of Nigeria where there are the first tech unicorns in Africa. And Lagos can become to Nigeria what California is to America.
As it has been noted that if California were a country, it would be the fifth largest economy in the world, likewise Lagos would be the fifth-largest economy in Africa if it were a country.
The realization of the awesome developments of tech startups connected to the entertainment industry in Lagos is what has attracted the biggest American streaming video services to Nollywood.
Disney already has a base in Nigeria with the long term partnership with Kugali Media.
I am excited about the Scramble for Nollywood and the competition for our original content.
Only the best is good enough for us.
As we say in my mother tongue of Igbo language, NKIRUKA, which means that the future is greater.
This is the Big Picture of Nollywood I saw coming years ago. The future is here.
- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series
247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter
