Nollywood Data Void Leaves Investors in N2.7 Trillion Sector Flying Blind

Nigeria's motion picture, sound recording and music production sector contributed about N2.70 trillion to gross domestic product in 2025, up from N2.22 trillion in 2024, yet investors looking to finance individual films have little reliable data on what those films cost, earn or own.

The gap, documented in a BusinessDay investigation published on Friday, is now a central obstacle to the industry's ability to attract institutional capital.

The gap between contribution and investability

A sector-level GDP figure and the commercial prospects of a single production are different things. The National Bureau of Statistics category aggregates film, sound recording and music, and does not establish the market value or potential return of any particular title. Without consistent records on production spending, distribution income and retained rights, investors have limited grounds for comparing projects, pricing risk or estimating returns.

Shaibu Husseini, Director-General of the National Film and Video Censors Board, put the problem plainly, saying one of the biggest gaps in the industry is the absence of an auditable structure for tracking production costs, revenue and overall commercial performance.

Why gross receipts are not enough

Box office results provide the most visible measure of a film's performance, but they capture only part of the income a production can generate. Films also earn from licensing, streaming, broadcast and merchandising, and those revenue streams are rarely tracked systematically. Meanwhile, marketing, distribution, financing and promotion all raise the amount a producer must recover before turning a profit, and those costs are inconsistently reported.

For an investor, what matters is the income available to recover capital and generate a return after costs and contractual obligations. Without title-level data, even a film with a strong cinema run can be impossible to value. Contracts can also divide rights among producers, investors, distributors and streaming platforms, further clouding what any one party actually owns.

Piracy and the rights problem

The World Intellectual Property Organisation has identified informality and weak documentation of film ownership as structural problems in Nollywood, stressing the importance of a clear chain of title when seeking finance or international distribution. Piracy compounds the difficulty: the United States International Trade Administration cites estimates that piracy could account for up to 40% of lost income for the industry.

These factors deter the very capital the sector needs. An investor weighing a Nigerian film must contend not only with ordinary commercial risk but with the possibility that revenues will be understated, rights are unclear or income is eroded by unauthorised distribution.

What a data system would change

Husseini said the problem begins with counting. He questioned claims that Nigeria produces thousands of films a year, noting there is no verifiable list of titles, and said compliance with registration and classification rules stood at about 40%. The board is working to build a catalogue of registered films covering 1994 to 2024 and to make registration a means of building a national film database.

Chapel Hill Denham chief executive Bolaji Balogun has argued the creative sector could account for between 20% and 25% of GDP in the long term if properly harnessed, but said capital follows credible evidence of success. Building that evidence is the industry's most urgent task.