Business
Nigeria: Internet penetration expected to boost online entertainment revenue to $8.5 billion by 2018
Jason Njoku, founder and CEO, iROKO Partners
The Internet will be a key driver for the Nigerian economy – Africa’s largest economy, where the number of mobile Internet subscribers is expected to surge from 7.7 million in 2013 to 50.4 million in 2018.
Nigeria’s entertainment and media revenues will reach an estimated US$8.5 billion in 2018, more than doubling from the 2013 figure of US$4.0 billion at a compound annual growth rate of 16.1 percent.
“This represents one of the fastest growth rates in the world,” said PwC in a recent report.
The report also predicted that television in the form of advertising and subscriptions and licence fees, will also become a US$1 billion-plus market in 2018, while the market will grow steadily.
According to recent data released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, motion pictures, sound recording and music production represent 1.2 percent of nominal gross domestic product (GDP), amounting to just under US$ 6.1 billion.
The bureau, in its 2014 second quarter report issued in the Nigerian capital Abuja, said that motion pictures, sound recording & music production and entertainment & recreation represent two of the 13 new economic activities in the new GDP.
Nollywood, Africa’s largest movie industry in terms of value and the number of movies produced per year, has witnessed a massive evolution in recent years.
