Tag: Nigeria

Hard work pays off for founder of ‘Nollywood Netflix’

At only 33, Jason Njoku is already considered one of Africa’s most promising entrepreneurs thanks to an online film distribution service that has tapped high demand for Nigerian movies.

But the British-born Nigerian entrepreneur, whose firm iROKO has been compared to the US Internet movie and TV streaming giant Netflix, is cautious about reading too much into the accolade.

“On paper, I’m a millionaire, absolutely,” he told AFP at his office in Nigeria’s financial capital, Lagos.

“But it’s on paper. It’s not cash in the bank. I think we are not successful, we are not profitable, we have a long way to go.”

Njoku’s caution is understandable given his background.

Soon after he was born, his father left, leaving his mother struggling to make ends meet while Njoku grew up in southeast London. Yet he managed to become the first from his family to go to university.

With a chemistry degree from the University of Manchester under his belt, Njoku decided to set up his own business. But it was not all plain sailing.

“I graduated in 2005 and spent a good five-and-a-half years just failing in everything I tried,” he admitted.

Though Njoku was broke, unable to open a bank account and slept on friends’ sofas, his best friend and university flatmate Bastian Gotter was still persuaded to invest in his latest venture.

Cinema is big business
That enterprise – iROKO Partners – was his 11th attempt at starting a company and born of the fact that cinema is increasingly big business in Nigeria.

Video editors David Adeoti (L) and Jolaosho Oladimeji preview a work at the headquarters of iROKOtv in Lagos. (Pic: AFP)

Some 1 500 to 2 000 Nollywood films are made every year and many are wildly popular both at home and abroad.

Most films, including poor quality pirated copies, are sold for a dollar or two on DVD in markets or by hawkers at traffic junctions, making them difficult to come by for the legions of fans overseas.

Njoku bought a ticket for Nigeria, where he had previously only been on a few childhood visits, and set out to meet film producers in the hope of creating a slick, modern distribution network.

“Our idea was really simple: we just wanted to take Nollywood movies and put them online. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

With producers on board, the first step in 2010 was the creation of “Nollywoodlove”, a dedicated channel on the video-sharing site YouTube, followed a year later by the iROKOtv platform.

Gotter sank money he had made as a trader for British oil giant BP into the venture and a US-based investment fund also provided financial backing, Njoku said.

Today, iROKOtv gets nearly a million hits a month and almost 90% of the content – more than 5 000 films – is free, with revenue generated in part by online advertising.

There is also a subscription service, where users can download the latest releases for $7.99 (5.7 euros) a month.

Notwithstanding comparisons with Netflix and the company’s expansion beyond Lagos to Johannesburg, London and New York, Njoku believes they still have a way to go.

Profitability, he said, will only start to come in two or three years.

“I’m actually always wary not to celebrate success before you know what it actually is. And at the moment, we’re still growing, we’re still scrappy, we’re still scared,” he explained.

“And in as much as money is important, it’s not the yardstick that we should use to determine your life and your values and how you try to build a company…

“We’re basically still growing and investing for growth.”

Up to now, most users of the site have been in the diaspora – first and second-generation African families who want to stay in touch with their roots.

African online market
But Njoku is eyeing the vast potential of the African online market for expansion and has tasked engineers to figure out the best way to compress films so quality is not lost on poor Internet lines.

Njoku and Gotter have also set up the music download site iroking.com, dubbed the “African Deezer”, featuring 35 000 tracks from Nigeria and other countries on the continent in MP3 format.

Another venture, “Sparks,” supports and finances young Nigerian start-ups.

What’s clear is that Njoku is not short of ideas or energy.

The self-confessed workaholic reckons he spends more than 100 hours a week in his office and is eager to share his experiences with young Nigerians, mindful that they will determine his future success.

“I think tenacity is one of the most important things because things are never going to go in the right way,” he said.

“So, if you can get knocked down five years in a row and still be excited, still be enthusiastic and still be in the fight… I think I’m fortunate to have been able to continue somehow.”

Cecile de Comarmond for AFP

11 years ago

Nigeria on $100 000-a-man bonus to win World Cup

Nigeria’s footballers stand to gain more than $100 000 each, should the African champions win every game at the World Cup and win the tournament, according to figures submitted to Parliament.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is requesting that lawmakers approve a 1.2-billion-naira ($7.2-million) war chest for the Super Eagles’ bid to become the competition’s first African winners.

Each player will pocket $10 000 for every group stage victory, according to the budget, which was submitted on Monday.

Wins in the round of 16 carry a $12 000 bonus, $15 000 in the quarter-final; $20 000 in the semi-final; and $30 000 in the final itself.

In addition, every one of the 23-man squad will get a daily allowance of $200, taking the potential total amount of win bonuses and allowances for the 32-day competition to $2.6-million.

The remaining cash will go towards the fees of coaches and backroom staff, the cost of accommodation, business class air travel and the team’s training camps in both the United States and Brazil.

Super Eagles midfielder Abdullahi Shehu (C), striker Ejike Uzuoenyi (L) and keeper Chigozie Agbim (R) pose with Nigeria’s new official jersey for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil in Abuja on February 27. (Pic: AFP)

Nigeria have previously been beset by financial problems, in particular over the size of win bonuses that have seen heated discussions between players and the NFF.

Coach Stephen Keshi and his assistants have even gone months without pay, forcing the government, which funds the NFF, to step in.

Dangote’s $1m pledge
Nigeria captain Vincent Enyeama has called on Africa’s richest man, cement, sugar and flour magnate Aliko Dangote, to hold good to his pledge to pay the team $1 million.

Dangote, who has a net worth of $25-billion as of this month, according to Forbes magazine, was one of several wealthy Nigerians to promise cash if the team won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

No one was immediately available for comment at Dangote’s office when contacted by AFP but the tycoon was reported as telling the BBC that he had been waiting for the NFF to get in touch.

“We will write to them, asking for the account numbers of the players then we’ll make the transfer immediately,” he was quoted as saying on the corporation’s sport website.

Last week, the government of the southern Cross River state made good on its promise of a plot of land in the city of Calabar to each player and official of the triumphant 2013 squad.

11 years ago

Reality TV show, films to showcase Niger Delta

A prominent director goes to Nigeria’s troubled oil-producing region and recruits 21 youngsters with absolutely no film experience.

He brings them to one of the country’s most expensive hotels for a 10-day filmmaking crash-course then flies them back home to make movies about positive, non-violent change.

Picking up the tab are US taxpayers – red carpet premieres included.

“This is pretty out there,” the US Consul General in Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos, Jeffrey Hawkins, said of a new TV programme which chronicles the search for new moviemakers.

Dubbed Dawn in the Creeks, it aims to showcase Niger Delta role models “who did not win (their) fame and respect with a gun”, said Hawkins.

The United States – as well as other countries and big oil firms – is concerned that conflict could return to the Niger Delta, which churns out some two million barrels of oil day – the highest crude output in Africa and Nigeria’s lifeline.

Decades of corruption have long denied Delta residents the benefits of oil revenue while oil-related pollution, including thousands of spills, has ravaged their environment.

Creeks and vegetations devastated as a result of spills from oil thieves and Shell operational failures in Niger Delta on March 22 2013. (Pic: AFP)

This volatile mix fuelled an insurgency that saw scores of oil workers kidnapped and infrastructure bombed – all tempered by a 2009 amnesty deal where, in effect, militant leaders got massive payouts to stand down.

Critics, however, say the payouts fostered the perception that wielding a weapon was the best way for the common man to get rich quick.

The amnesty’s expiration in 2015, when Nigeria also elects a new president and parliament, has fed fears about a return to the bad old days.

The poll, too, is expected to inflame tensions, notably in the Niger Delta whose native son President Goodluck Jonathan will likely face a tough re-election bid.

Despite billions of dollars worth of oil flowing out of Nigeria South East, life for the majority of Niger Delta’s inhabitants remains unchanged. (Pic: Reuters)

A prominent ex-militant has already threatened to take up arms if the presidency changes hands.

With this in mind – and the failure of earlier NGO peace-building campaigns after funding dried up – US diplomats “wanted to do something really glitzy,” Hawkins told AFP.

Nollywood
So they turned to Nollywood, Nigeria’s hugely popular domestic film industry.

First will come the television reality show about the recruitment drive and the film academy. Once a student’s films are made, they will be shown during three days of US-sponsored premieres.

Running the artistic side is Jeta Amata, an accomplished director and Niger Delta native now based in Los Angeles.

In a 10-day stay in the region, he found his students at town hall meetings or stopping random people on the street.

Elina Emeseruome, a semi-employed interior decorator, said she was getting her hair done at a roadside stall in the town of Ozoro when Amata stopped to ask her thoughts on the Delta’s future.

Days later, the director (39) called and told her she’d be going to Lagos to learn scriptwriting.

Her girlfriends were sceptical. “They were like, ‘same old story, he’s trafficking ladies’,” said the 27-year-old.

But her doubts were eased when the film academy began on the manicured lawns of the plush Eko Hotel in Lagos.

Amata himself feels the Delta’s future is “dicey” and said he heard multiple reports of militants mobilising to renew fighting.

“I am concerned about the region but I’m hopeful about what I see in these guys,” he said of his students

Like Hawkins, Amata acknowledged that a few feel-good movies cannot undo decades of resentment and conflict. But he voiced faith that powerful stories told through film can help steer people away from militancy.

Joel Jumbo
On day six at the academy, Amata’s students were divided into groups of seven and tasked with producing a five-minute film by 5pm.

Playing the male lead in a piece about a jaded wife competing for her husband’s affections with a younger woman was Joel Jumbo, a 32-year-old who said he had served in both the army and been part of a militant group.

Jumbo said he got nothing from the amnesty, not even a place in job training programmes Nigeria insists are ongoing but many say have achieved little.

He was unemployed, “feeling aggressive and angry and ready to do anything”. Only days before meeting Amata, he said, he was “about to go.. and meet some [of] my bad boys… militants”.

Though still tense at the film school, his frustration was more about his director who showed no signs of getting the shoot done before the deadline.

It contrasted to the quiet, understated performance by Jumbo, who said he was just enjoying being around a “different kind of people”.

11 years ago

‘The right to choose your own sexuality is a human right’

(Pic: Reuters)

In the wake of the recently passed “anti-gay” law by the Nigerian government and President Goodluck Jonathan, there has been much speculation online as to how Fela Kuti, my father, would react. So let us get this clear, and I will also express my own views on the matter.

My father would not support this law. He would know why the law was passed: as a way of distracting the population from the main problems we face today – poverty, lack of electricity and services, corruption, mismanagement, and so on and so forth.

Read: Nigeria signs Bill to outlaw same-sex marriages

That being said, Fela may have had some reservations about homosexuality itself. Who is to say? No one can speak for him. But Fela would not have had any reservations about upholding and protecting basic human rights. The right to choose your own sexuality and sexual behavior – as long as it is between consenting adults – is one such human right.

It’s a difficult topic for a lot of people in Nigeria to understand as it’s a very new issue that has never been quite public. Our culture and traditions and certain religious values make it more difficult for many to accept or understand, and it will take some time for those people to learn to respect the fundamental human rights of others to express themselves freely. People have said that being gay is “un-African” – I’m not an expert on our history, but I don’t know of any [instance] where the topic is mentioned in our history (I am not referring to Christian orthodoxy that was brought by non-African missionaries).

The gay community in Nigeria will have to be patient and realise acceptance of homosexuality is a gradual process which will take a very long time – especially in the north of Nigeria. But they must slowly put their case forward. They will need a lot of diplomatic support, and they will have to fight the law. They might definitely lose, but they will just have to keep on fighting for their fundamental right to live. There is no other choice.

We have to keep talking about the issue of gay rights, but it’s the government’s responsibility to take the lead to defend people’s fundamental rights. Citizens must have the right to be who they want to be.

Femi Kuti for okayafrica, a blog dedicated to bringing you the latest from Africa‘s New Wave.

11 years ago

Nigerian authorities arrest online romance scammer

(Pic: Flickr / Don Hankins)

Nigerian authorities have arrested a 28-year-old man suspected of defrauding an Australian widow in a fake online romance, a year after she was found dead during a trip to South Africa where she intended to meet him.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it had arrested Orowo Omokoh on January 28 on suspicion of conning 67-year-old Jette Jacobs out of $90 000 after they met on an internet dating site.

Jacobs, a grandmother, flew from her home in Western Australia to meet Omokoh in South Africa last February, but died four days later under circumstances still being investigated by South African police.

Omokoh had arrived in the country two days before her death.

“We received a complaint about the fraudulent relationship from police in South Africa. We tracked him for a while, then we closed in,” EFCC spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren said.

He stressed the Nigerian commission only had power to investigate the alleged fraud committed on its territory but would co-operate with South African police on any extradition request.

Fake online romances are common form of advance fee fraud in Nigeria – generically called “419 scams”, after the section in the penal code. Authorities say they have become more popular as the classic emails promising impossibly good business deals become less effective.