Industry stakeholders have called for the integration of Nollywood into the Nigerian capital market to deepen the market as well as boost funding for the entertainment industry.
This call was made at the Capital Market Correspondents Association of Nigeria 2023 workshop with the theme, ‘Leveraging Capital Market In Financing The National Development Plan’ held recently in Lagos.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the event, the head of Ecosystem Integration, VFD Group, Mr Folagbade Adeyemi, pointed out that, despite the poor funding available to players in the media and entertainment sector in Nigeria, they have been able to deliver high returns and gained global reckoning.
He said: “There is a section of the economy that has been delivering high growth but has been fully excluded; entertainment and media. Recently, a movie, Black Book, came out. It was one of the highest-viewed movies on the streaming platforms across Nigeria, across Africa, and globally. We were invested in it.
“The truth is, Nigeria, South Korea, and India probably have the highest compound value per person in this sector. Nigeria has the highest currently compared to the amount that we invest per capita which is $15 and we see much work.
“Next to us is India, which is about $45 per capita, then South Korea. These are major hubs of entertainment and media, and not only does it come with its own product, it also comes with its own value chain. There is a growth in that space, we just have not created structure for it and until we can create structure around it, we won’t actually see significant returns”.
Adeyemi added that, at this point, the capital market and its players needed to build structures that would drive the entertainment structure, calling on regulators to provide the framework that would make that happen.
Offering financing options, Adeyemi said: “You can either use a fund-type structure or you can use a securitisation framework, which simply means that you securitise based on the back of royalties of these assets or do some kind of bonds.
“The issue is I do not think that sector of the economy has been fully integrated or connected to the core of the economy and I think that is why the VP, Kashim Shettima, a few weeks back mentioned the fact that there has been a historic disconnect, he apologised and promised integration”.
Responding, the deputy director of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Lagos Zonal office, Mr. John Briggs, stated that the commission was receptive to offering a regulatory framework for the media and entertainment sector of the economy.
Meanwhile, Adeyemi added that more focus needed to be placed on bringing the younger generations into the capital market. The PwC in its spotlight on the Nigerian Film Industry released July 2017 stated that Nollywood is globally recognised as the second largest film producer in the world.
