Netflix: We’ve invested over $23m, licensed 283 Nollywood titles since 2016

Netflix says it has invested over $23 million and licensed 283 titles in Nollywood alone since 2016.

The streaming platform, in its just-released six-year socioeconomic impact report on Sub-Saharan Africa, said the investments have contributed no less than $39 million towards GDP and $34 million towards household income.

Netflix said its direct, indirect, and expenditure impacts yielded $2.6 million toward tax revenue in the country.

It said a total of 5,140 jobs throughout the economy were supported since the 2016 launch of its service in Nigeria.

“Recent years have witnessed hugely successful Nigerian Netflix originals, such as Anikulapo which became Netflix’s top-performing film in Nigeria within less than two weeks of its release,” the 48-page report reads.

“Other Nigerian Netflix productions include Blood Sisters, Far From Home, Shanty Town, and King of Boys.”

Netflix said it has backed multiple talent development initiatives in Nigerian film since entering the market.

It said this includes a total disbursement of $500,000 towards a film and TV fund that provided short-term relief to technical crew workers who were unable to earn a living during the pandemic and its impact on the industry.

Across its three priority markets in Sub-Saharan Africa including South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, Netflix said it invested a cumulative total of $175 million in content that generated a total of $218 million in GDP since 2016.

“There’s no question that Africa’s richness in talent, cultural diversity, and vibrant societies are key ingredients in creating its powerful and compelling local stories,” said Dean Garfield, Netflix’s vice president on public policy.

“When Netflix entered the region back in 2016, the strength of storytellers, diversity, and creativity was apparent.

“Our role back then was first to learn as much as we could about key film and TV hubs in Africa such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya so we could understand how best to collaborate with the local creative ecosystem.”

On Netflix’s six-year operation in the region, Shoia Sanni, its director of public policy in SSA, said there’s a need for governments, the private sector, and the industry to curate conditions that enable the streaming business to thrive.

“Enabling policy frameworks, flexible regulatory mandates, and ease of doing business are inextricably bound to the continued growth of the audio-visual sector and streaming services,” she added.

“The importance of getting right the policy, regulatory, and legislative infrastructures that support Film and TV can’t be overemphasized.”