Nigeria produced 280 films in the first quarter of 2023, with Lagos, Abuja, and Onitsha in the lead.
The National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) revealed this in the Q1 report of its censorship and classification department.
The board said it received and censored 280 movies by Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry, in the first quarter.
The board, which regulates the film and video industry in Nigeria, said the data is meant for onward transmission to the relevant federal government agency as input for the compilation of the nation’s GDP for the first quarter.
An analysis of the data, the NFVCB said, shows a decrease in the number of films produced, from 340 in Q4 2022.
This represents a downward slope of approximately 18 percent.
On production location, NFVCB said 106 of the films came in from the Lagos censorship centre of the board.
This represents a larger chunk of the movies produced during the period under review.
A further look at the censorship location data ranks Abuja next with a total of 99 movies.
This is followed by Onitsha which produced 32 films and Kano which produced 15.
Jos scored 14 films; Port Harcourt had eight while Abeokuta submitted three films within the period in focus.
Ibadan, Kaduna, and Benin recorded one film each within the quarter in review.
Adedayo Thomas, NFVCB CEO, said the board committed to providing an enabling environment for filmmaking.
“There is no doubt that our film industry is a key contributor to the national economy as the films being produced are a clear reflection of the direct and indirect jobs the sector is creating,” the censor board head added.
“We urge them to cooperate with us by ensuring that they submit their films for classification.”
Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood, is estimated to have an annual output of about 2500 films.
This makes it the world’s second-largest movie industry by volume after India’s Bollywood.
Earlier, the federal government offered land to Indian investors interested in building film cities in Lagos and Abuja.
Lai Mohammed, the minister for information and culture, said India has been one of Nigeria’s biggest partners in trading and commerce.
He added that bilateral relations between Nigeria and India date back to 1958 and it has been very cordial.
The minister said India would be a strategic creative sector partner due to its sprawling movie industry.
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