spotlight country
NIGERIA'S NOLLYWOOD: A JOURNEY FROM BIG SCREENS TO SMARTPHONES
According to the United Nations, Nigeria is already the most populous African nation and will be over twice as large by 2050, reaching 400 million people. The estimated figures for the national economy are over 1 million people and more than $7 billion, accounting for approximately 1.4 percent of Nigeria’s GDP. New movie theatres, and box office revenues are expected to reach 22 million dollars by 2021. ‘NOLLYWOOD’ IS BIGGER THAN HOLLYWOOD! FACTS: In 2009, UNESCO reported
16 THE TIMES OF AFRICA
the Nigerian film industry – also known as “Nollywood” – had overtaken Hollywood to become the world’s second largest film industry, behind India’s Bollywood. In the following decade, output more than doubled to 2,500 films a year – and the industry is continuing to grow, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Some of the highest literary awards have been awarded to Nigerian authors, including Wole Soyinka, a playwright who won the first African Nobel Literary Prize in 1986. Things Fall Apart, the late Chinua Achebe novel’s debut, sold 20 million
copies over the six decades following its launch, which made him famous for challenging European colonialism. The Famished Road of Ben Okri won the Man booker award in 1991. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, contemporary feminist, was inspired by reading Things Fall Apart at age 10. In 2013, her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, was made into a film. According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s GDP was about ten years ago greater than that of South Africa. Nigeria, which pumps around 2 million barrels a day is one of the world’s largest exporters of oil and the largest oil producer in Africa.
www.thetimesofafrica.com
