Nigerian Movie Industry(Nollywood) and its contributions

   

Nollywood is the name attributed to Nigeria's movie industry. By definition it is Nigeria's movie industry by Nigerian production teams for the Nigerian people. Nollywood has over the years become a world phenomenon, as its movies are being sold in Ghana, Togo, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa as well as Jamaica, USA and the UK to name a few. The Nigerian movie industry (Home video Industry) a.k.a Nollywood has been typically accepted to have started immediately following the success of Ken Nebue’s “Living in bondage” in 1992. From then on, its expansion and attendant complications are known. However, events preceding 1992 are not popular even although a few have tried to trace the history of Nollywood. With revenues estimated at $200 – 250 million annually, the industry developed in the late 1980's when the depreciation of the local currency made foreign film imports extremely expensive. Today, over 1000 movies are produced annually with an average production budget of $15,000 - $25,000 with most movies directly for the home video market. Shooting time is on average between 10 - 14 days and quality is variable. On average, movies sell about 20,000 - 50,000 copies but best sellers (e.g. Osuofia in London) sell between 200,000 to 400,000 copies. The genre varies from romance, thrillers, witchcraft, and religious. Interestingly, the export market does not only consist of the English films (form about 65% of titles) but films in one of the three major languages appear to be populated.

The fact is that Nollywood started as a ‘migration from the then television show programs and plays. And from 1992, though not without some negative imparts, Nollywood has tremendously contributed positively to the growth of the Nigerian society socially, religiously, economically, morally and otherwise.  Nollywood has employed about well over 30,000 thousand people and this is a huge success in the job opportunity in the Nigeria labour sector.  “Nigerian popular videos are nothing like films canonized in African cinema studies. Common video genres include comedy, horror, mythic parables, romance, witchcraft, melodrama, Christian morality tales, and historical epics. While Africa’s celluloid cinema has depended largely on foreign funding, schooling and inspiration, Nigeria’s video industry is profitable and self sufficient. It is now one of the fastest growing sectors of the Nigerian economy. (McCall, 2004: 103)” http://www.participations.org/Volume%205.

Nollywod has helped to portray and showcase the cultural identity of the country.  It encourages scholarship among Nigerians. More so, it provides entertainment and relaxation. Today, Nollywood homes movies are regarded as one of the channels of transmission of morals to the young. The stories recounted in the movies try to establish a link between the past and the present.