October 01, (THEWILL) – Last week, the highly anticipated movie, ‘The Black Book’ premiered on Netflix. The movie featured quite a number of heavy weights in Nollywood. From Richard Mofe Damijo aka RMD to Shaffy Bello to Alex Usifo, Femi Branch, Ikechukwu Onunaku, Sam Dede, just to mention a few.
The movie which was greeted with mixed reviews, securing top position on Netflix’s movie rankings worldwide, was funded by some unlikely investors – influential tech magnates and venture capitalists. They include Flutterwave’s Gbenga Agboola; Ventures Partners’ Kola Aina; Voltron Capital CEO, Olumide Soyombo; Paystack’s Ezra Olubi; Volition Cap’s Adesunmbo Plumptre; Opportunik Global Fund CEO, Kola Oyenenyin; Eden Life owned by the duo of Prosper Otemuyiwa and Nadayar Enegesi and Piggyvest owned by the trio of Odunayo Oweniyi, Somtochukwu Ifezue, Joshua Chibueze.
‘The Black Book’ is no doubt one of many more movies the tech founders plan to bankroll. They are willing to toss around the kind of funds that foreign streaming giants are investing in Nigeria’s entertainment industry and positioning it on the path to playing big on a global scale. Despite its undeniable potential, limited investment opportunities stifled the growth of the industry. Limited funds hindered the creation of high-quality content, profitability, and the industry’s ability to reach global audiences. Before now, only Multichoice had the monopoly of investing in movies and soaps shot exclusively for it and only streamed on its platform. But the story has changed significantly in recent times with the coming of streaming giants like Amazon, Showmax and Netflix, all of whom are pouring huge resources into the industry, allowing Nollywood to produce higher-quality films and expand its reach across borders. From 2016 through 2022, Netflix invested $175 million and contributed a total of $218 million to GDP in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
