Filmmaker Kunle Afolayan has said that business understanding is crucial to sustaining and expanding Nigeria’s creative sector.
The October 1 director made this known on Tuesday during a panel discussion at the inaugural QEDNG Creative Powerhouse Summit held in Lagos.
On the panel, which dissected the keynote speech by founder of The Africa Soft Power Group, Dr Nkiru Balonwu, were Kunle; President and Founder of All-Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), Mike Dada; Founder of Africa Film Finance Forum (AFFF), Mary Ephraim-Egbas and Founder of Duke of Shomolu Productions, Joseph Edgar.
The discussion was moderated by broadcaster Anike-Ade Funke Treasure.
Kunle, whose Netflix hit Anikulapo gained global attention, noted that creativity alone is not enough in today’s competitive market.
“I was listening to Nkiru while she was talking, and I could actually resonate with a lot of things.
“While she was talking about the collaboration side of things, for me, I was whispering to a friend and I said ‘you need to be careful at the same time.’ For some of us who are driven by passion, but at the same time, we are very mindful of the fact that for you to keep the art and creativity going, the business side must also be well thought out,” he said.
To illustrate his point, Kunle shared a moment in 2011 when he almost made a bad business deal after the success of Irapada and Figurine.
“We got approached by some people, and they had funds… they said they wanted to buy into Golden Effect and I said they should propose what they have in mind and they came back with this proposal of wanting to get 49% of the company’s shares.
“Really, the honest truth is I really didn’t have details on how equity, shares and all those things work… you need to surround yourself with good people, you need to surround yourself with good friends.
“As far back as that time… Mike is one of them, Seun Soyinka, all of us, we’ve been together since then.
“So I went back to them saying ‘so you people want to take my company I’m not doing.’ And they said, okay.
“Fast-forward… we did SPV for a film title… waiting for their funds… till we finished the movie project, the funds never came. At the end of the day, we had to dissolve this SPV… they are big people, you can’t fight them… so it was more like wasting your time doing that.
“Now look at where we are now, we have managed to build a company, and the company gave birth to another company then another company. And consistency.”
Moderator Treasure read statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics showing Nigeria’s creative industry contributed just 1.2 percent to GDP in 2022, compared to Morocco’s 2.7 percent, Egypt’s 4.3 percent and South Africa’s three percent. In revenue generation, Nigeria ranked one percent, compared to South Africa’s 12.5 percent.
Responding, Kunle said: “The parameters around the ranking, I am not sure… I’m not sure if they are only looking at the box office figures or other areas. The east is a completely different sector, Kannywood I’m not sure what they do there. I think we really need to check this facts well.”
On the minister of art, culture and the creative economy Hannatu Musawa’s vision of generating $100 billion from the industry by 2027 and creating over two million jobs, Kunle said: “I don’t know. I don’t understand it. There has been intervention approach and executed intervention from government even before this administration. I think the entire industry need to be restructured in a way. People take money and even when the Government give money, people take and you can’t even account for it. That is one of the major problem we have.”
In her keynote address, Balonwu said: “The challenge, I think, is not the absence of capital but the lack of scalable, structured investment frameworks that the industry needs to thrive.”
She welcomed Afreximbank’s billion-dollar Africa film fund but warned that its impact would depend on “effective implementation and alignment with industry needs.”
Balonwu, former chief executive of Spinlet, called for tier-targeted financing such as early-stage grants, seed capital, and patient equity to support the entire creative life cycle, not just “glamorous headline projects or the polished final product.”
She also emphasised the need for infrastructure such as intellectual property banks, legal support, domestic distribution networks, and affordable production facilities.
“This requires a mindset shift. Creatives must see themselves not just as artists but as businesspeople, institution builders and financially literate architects of enterprise. Financing must be smart, responsive, and tailored to the entire creative process, not just consumption,” she said.
Balonwu further urged creatives to embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an enabler rather than a threat.
