Business is usually slow in the first quarter of every year and the creative industry is not immune to this. January is the biggest victim, suffering the hangover from October-December’s bubbles. On the part of policy makers, especially government and its agencies, it is a quarter to await budgets. Despite the lull, however, some positive vibes started unfolding from January 2025 in Nigeria’s creative space; after all, entertainment doesn’t wait.
The Netflix’s Retreat Question
As eventful as 2024 was, the industry suffered some ache when news surfaced that Netflix ‘was leaving’ Nigeria. The impact the streaming giant had made in Nollywood was tangible in funding expansion, enhanced profitability and the deepening of Nigerian films’ fame globally. Conflicting reasons were thrown up for the outfit’s decision and the coast is not too clear yet. More importantly, the deficit the Netflix’s retreat represented was the first issue the Ministry of Art, Culture and Creative Economy addressed early when it sent a delegation to Amsterdam to meet with its management. Official report by the team led by the National Film and Video Censors Board’s Executive Director, Dr Shaibu Husseini, is still being awaited, but he gave a pointer when he spoke at an event a few days ago. According to Husseini, Netflix only pruned down its business in Nigeria due to economic realities. It had not ‘left’, he said.
In the delegation were other stakeholders including Charles Okpaleke, Kene Okwousa, Moses Iwang and Joy Odiete.
“Entertainment doesn’t wait.”
$200m funding promise
With funding being a major issue in the creative sector, hope was raised in March when the Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, announced that the $200m African Export-Import Bank fund to boost Nigeria’s tourism and creative economy would become operational on June 1, 2025. Until now, the Bank of Industry, Nexim, Access Bank, GTB and Sterling and, maybe one or two other more financial institutions, were known to have special support packages for Nollywood. But Musawa’s new promise is capable of further revolutionising business, hoping the terms and process will be compatible with the realities of creative enterprise. According to the minister, the money will be directly injected into the sector to accelerate its growth.
“As part of the funding effort, the minister has secured a commitment of $200m from Afrexim Bank, which will accelerate the building of the cultural and creative industries,” Musawa said in a statement by her Special Assistant on Compliance and Coordination, Jummai Ali.
Later the same month, the minister directed focus to infrastructure, unveiling a plan to launch the ‘DE30 platform’ to drive growth, investments and unlock opportunities in the sector. Musawa disclosed this at a press briefing in Lagos, saying DE30 was a platform that would provide adequate data on the creative industry to help players and investors make informed decisions.
She had said, “Our vision is to build an integrated, data-driven, and investment-friendly ecosystem that really has the potential to unlock the great opportunities that abound in this industry. The DE30 platform will be able to map our current industry landscape and offer forward-looking insights.”
She had also announced the plan to establish a world-class museum in Abuja.
“Netflix only pruned down its business in Nigeria due to economic realities. It had not ‘left’.”
Attacking from the wings
From the wings, agencies in the ministry have also since kicked off the year. The NFVCB has, for instance, been diligently pursuing its redefined business: classifying films. Husseini had noted in January that the board no more censors movies; it only classifies them. This, according to him, greatly puts the responsibility of film rating entirely on the filmmaker since the board classifies based on the ‘classifiable’ elements in the work.
Keeping faith with the role, the agency has released the number and details of the films it classified in January, February and March. Data on its website indicate that, based on the sorting it did, Nigeria officially welcomed 25 new films in January while 57 came on stream in February. March’s figure is being expected as Husseini and his wise men (and women) will work on them in April.
Meanwhile, the NFVCB is planning to establish a script-writing lab to improve the skills of local writers, as revealed by the executive director when he spoke on Lagos Television’s programme ‘The Conversation’ in January.
On its part, the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC) prosecuted something new in literary promotion when it organised the CBAAC Festival of African Literature. Such literary feasts are not new in the country. The likes of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Abuja Literary Society and the Lagos Poetry Festival have been in the business for long. While they, however, normally hold their events towards the end of the year, CBAAC staged its in February 2025, yet generating considerable buzz . It said it received some 300 entries for the competition aspect of the programme. In the poetry category, Fatihah Quadri Eniola won the first prize, while other winners include James Eneojile (second), Adeka Mercy Omusa (third), Sumaiyah Muhammed, Muhammed Al-Amin Sanusi, Agbeye Oburumu, Abdul-Aziz Muhammed Inuwa, and Radhiya Abdulhakeem.
The Nuhu Aliu-led Nigerian Film Corporation has also made a promising move, announcing plans to collaborate with Saudi Arabia to explore sustainable cultural cooperation in film production. Nuhu had met with Ali Khalil Al-Maqeit, a representative of the Saudi Arabia Film Commission, at the Berlinale Film Festival in Germany where the deal was struck. He said in a statement that the Saudi authorities were eager to sign a cooperation agreement with Nigeria to facilitate the robust development of both countries’ film sectors.
The National Theatre has not begun operation after the completion of its restoration announced last year by the Bankers’ Committee that undertook it. But the National Troupe, which has been merged with the Theatre, has continued to keep the stage alive, even if the golden, action-packed years have not fully returned. According to its management, the Troupe is also pursuing its target to digitise its products, with the scheme tagged reimagining National Troupe of Nigeria through innovation. The idea is to establish culture in virtual reality which will also produce digitised games, dances, stage drama and so on. The programme was launched recently at the National Theatre in partnership with Open Innovation Access.
“Our vision is to build an integrated, data-driven, and investment-friendly ecosystem.”
Back to the field
Such governmental efforts notwithstanding, it is the practitioners that are really making things happen as usual. From the music scene to film, comedy, literature, visual arts and other areas, new feats are being recorded, new contents churned out, new projects unveiled while the year has also not been denied the razzmatazz that arguably makes the terrain thick and sensational.
On stage, screen and online, where the industry has considerably migrated, entertainers have kick-started the year on inspiring notes — forget the scandals, dispute and other ‘gbas-gbos’ that will always colour the industry. While Tems won the Best African Music Performance category at the 67th Grammy Awards, at the grand event held in February, Ayra Starr asserted her talent big time the same month when she made history as the first woman in 16 years to win Best African Music Act at the 2025 MOBO Awards. She earned the crest at the ceremony held in Newcastle. She not only beat co-Nigerians Asake and Tems as well as South Africa’s Tyla, but she also rattled superstars like Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla and Latto.
The duo of Tems and Starr thus stole the first quarter’s show while the big men like Burna Boy, Wizkid and Davido receded a bit. Tongues again, indeed, wagged about Davido’s fate in the sense that his songs have continued to do well globally while the Grammy diadem has persistently eluded him. But some pundits who are arguably more reflective on the matter have noted that the fact that Davido has not got the award does not mean that some witches and wizards, say in his Ede, Osun State home town, are after him. Rather, they recall that there are a good number of hugely successful musicians who also (have) never won the enviable crest, including Snoop Dog, Diana Ross, Bob Marley, Queen and Diana Ross. Of course, those who care should also remember that although legendary writer, Chinua Achebe, never won the Nobel Prize, his place in history eternally remains sacrosanct.
In general terms, Nigerian musicians performed excellently last year based on the result 2025 has so far produced. Only mid-March, music streaming platform, Spotify, announced that they earned N58bn in royalties in 2024. And the artistes have started prospecting for a bigger take as they release new works. Among albums being anticipated are Davido’s ‘5ive’, Burna Boy’s ‘No Sign of Weakness’, Kizz Daniel’s ‘Uncle K’ and Omah Lay’s ‘Clarity of Mind’.
“YouTube too remains a goldmine for movie producers.”
Between Funke Akindele and Omoni Oboli
In film, there is also no slowing down the screen idols. Well, filmmaking is not a gender duel but the women have, so far, been taking instructive steps. Till early 2025, Funke Akindele’s ‘Everybody Loves Jenifa’ led the pack at cinemas. As of early March, it had garnered over N1.8bn. But another filmmaker who has also sparked a big surprise is Omoni Oboli. Beyond the bucks that cinemas and Netflix promise, her experience with her new film, ‘Love in Every Word’, has shown that YouTube too remains a goldmine for movie producers. By March 15, the film had generated 11 million views within a week of uploading despite the fact that she temporarily brought it down due a copyright scare.
On the whole, Nollywood has continued to do what it knows best — churning out films of varied types, languages and standards. Based on the NFVCB’s statistics in terms of the films it classified, some 84 movies were ready for market in January and February while, as earlier noted, March’s figure is being awaited.
Beyond Macaroni’s N500m debt
In terms of the progress skit makers and other content creators are making, an experience one of the stars in the genre, Adebowale Debo Adedayo, aka Mr Macaroni, recently had says a lot. It is an ugly one but it again confirms how well the online wags are doing. According to him, he lost N500m to bad investments, landing him in an ocean of debts. But, apart from the big material things the skit makers have been flaunting, another leading light in the game, Mr Shaggy, had since 2023 given a dependable insight when he said he made $40,000 monthly on YouTube alone. So far so good in 2025, the clowns of fortunes, which also include Sabinus and Kiekie, have advanced the laughter business while others are emerging by the day.
The literary community too is not dormant. It has had to grapple with the death of iconic Mabel Segun, the author of My Father’s Daughter who passed on days after her 90th birthday. Among the cheery developments in the house of muse, however, are the release of another novel, Dream Count, by acclaimed writer, Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie; the announcement of submission for this year’s edition of the Nigeria Prize for Literature and the celebration of the World Poetry Day by many groups and individuals.
The fact is that all the sub-sectors in the creative industry, including Visual Arts where exhibitions such as the Lagos Biennial, Canvas Art and Festival Exhibition in Abuja, and +234 Art Fair, Lagos have held, have set a promise pace for 2025. In other words, g government may not have been as deliberate and strategic as it should be, the practitioners are still taking the bull by the horns, driving the train to greater realms. The scandals and controversies that occasionally rear their heads — marital, rivalry, contractual, copyright and what can now be tagged Portableism, based on the intriguing rascality that Zazoo singer, Portable, may have turned into an art — will never end but they cannot bury the great impacts Nigerian creatives are making.
The ball in their court
While the legal battle over the portrayal of the Eyo masquerader in Jade Osiberu’s film, ‘Gangs of Lagos’, has been resolved, with the court ordering the filmmaker and distributor to apologise to the aggrieved custodians of the tradition, the Federal Consumer Protection Commission (FCPC) and MultiChoice are still in court over the latter’s latest hike in subscription. Similarly, gospel singer Chinwo and her former manager Eezee Tee (Ezekiel Onyediakachukwu) are prosecuting a case over the musician’s fraud allegation against him. In another major legal tussle, the first quarter also witnessed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dragging defunct PSquare’s producer, Jude Okoye, and his company, Northshire Music Ltd, to court, on a seven-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of N1.38billion.
It is believed that all the legal disputes are instructive as they have the potential to redefine the areas of businesses involved. They promise deeper impacts than the routine dramas the industry also witnessed in the first quarter — like popular artiste Tuface’s romance with Natasha after he ended his marriage to Annie, outcry by the father of wave-making musician, Asake, that the son had neglected him, an issue that has been resolved as he has taken over the healthcare of the sick dad. Also in February, the legal battle that iconic lawyer, Chief Afe Babalola, instituted against activist Dele Farotimi, for allegedly libelling him in his book titled Nigeria and its Justice System, was settled following pleas to Babalola, by traditional rulers that included the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi.
Such distractions notwithstanding, business continues in the creative kingdom.
Tax
If there is any question that may not be too early to ask, it is how the government’s tax reform will affect the terrain. For instance, will some of the moguls like Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Rema, Asake, Funke Akindele, Kunle Afolayan, Genevieve, Omoni Oboli, Bolanle Austen-Peters (whose Dear Kaffy recently toured South Africa) Femi Adebayo of Jagun Jagun and Seven Doors fame as well as Odunlade Adekola not fall under the band the Central Bank Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, calls the wealthy whose income tax will be raised to 27 per cent? That the government has not done much for the industry may not count in the new tax regime, one fears. After all, when it comes to taxes, government will not mind reaping even where id did not sow. The nearest future will tell.
