Actress and producer Eniola Ajao has shared the financial challenges she faced in producing a cinema movie, including selling personal assets and borrowing from a colleague.
Speaking on the Spill Thells podcast, she explained the sacrifices needed to fund her project.
The actress said she sold her cars and land to make her movie. She also borrowed money from senior actor Odunlade Adekola. She said, “I sold my cars, I had two cars, I sold my land to make a cinema movie. Odunlade even borrowed me 8 million naira to complete the project.”
Eniola also addressed the limited support from marketers in the Nigerian movie industry before the rise of streaming platforms. She said, “Where are the marketers today? You make a lot of movies, spend a lot of money, and at the end of the day, you sell them to marketers and they give you peanut. And some of them will tell you they didn’t make anything, whereas they are sending their children abroad.”
She explained that she produces a lot of online content to promote her films because support often fades after a few posts. She also called for more community cinemas to increase access and revenue for filmmakers.
Eniola has produced two cinema movies so far. Her first, Beast of Two Worlds (also called Ajakaju), released in 2024, grossed over 101 million naira within five days and later surpassed 200 million naira at the Nigerian box office.
Her second film, Owambe Thieves, was released in 2025.
