'Nobody's stifling you' Nigeria's film-makers embrace YouTube as media firms leave

For an entire weekend this March, romcom fever gripped Nigerian social media. Thousands of Nigerians, even in the diaspora, debated fervently about Love in Every Word, in which an affair takes off after a smooth-talking, free-spending businessman hires a dance troupe to get an advertising executive's phone number.

- Eromo Egbejule

Critics poked holes in the plot, but the movie's melodrama appealed to many. Clips and memes were shared online as viewers spun fantasies about their own odogwu, an Igbo word used to refer to an influential or well-to-do man.

The film clocked up 1m views on YouTube within 24 hours and hit the 5m mark within three days. "God did it and I don't have anything but a grateful heart," said Omoni Oboli, the film's director.

In recent years, creatives in Nollywood, the world's second-largest film industry by volume, have pivoted en masse to YouTube as global streaming companies have fled a market where they struggled to make money.

In January 2024, Amazon Prime, the third-biggest streaming platform in Nigeria after Netflix and Showmax, laid off all its employees in Africa. Netflix has noticeably reduced its take-up of originals.