Business
Growth of Nollywood boosts Nigeria’s tourism sector
Filming staff on set during a movie shoot in Nigeria. PHOTO/File
Nigeria’s Nollywood s the second largest film industry globally in terms of the number of films released – after India’s Bollywood.
Nollywood eclipses Hollywood in terms of volume – with over 2000 movie releases annually.
Nollywood movies are popular in many African countries including Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. In these African countries, Nollywood movies are distributed through TV channels and DVDs and are more popular than Hollywood films.
Nollywood movies have a large foreign market found in the African diaspora, with significant numbers living in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Nollywood’s popularity has become a major growth driver in the leisure sector – and in turn boosted the Nigeria’s tourism sector. Arrivals to country are growing and this trend is expected to grow over the next several years attracting film fans and business travel boosted by the growing economic importance of the film industry.
