Nigeria’s film industry has taken a viral knock

IN THE PAST two decades Nigeria’s film industry has blossomed into a mighty national asset. Its romances, family sagas and tales of derring-do are lapped up by many millions of viewers at home, across the rest of Africa and in the African diaspora. It employs more than a million people and generates nearly $2bn a year from cinema tickets and DVD sales, TV rights, royalties and fees. Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital and film hub, is said to produce more films than there are stars in the sky.

Films like “Ije”, “The Wedding Party” and “2 Weeks in Lagos” have premiered at the poshest international festivals, from Toronto to Cannes. Netflix has set up partnerships. In 2018 it released its first Nigerian film, “Lionheart”. In June it teamed up with EbonyLife Films, based in Lagos, to embark on a string of Netflix-branded projects. “Death and the King’s Horseman”, a play premiered in 1975 by Africa’s first Nobel laureate in literature, Wole Soyinka, is to be adapted for the screen.

But covid-19 has given Nollywood a nasty viral knock. Emem Isong, a leading producer, laments the obstacles facing her latest TV series, “City Crimes”. She was only two weeks into her six-week filming schedule when a government-imposed lockdown forced her to stop. When production resumed in June, she had to cut her crew in half, buy protective...