​Nigeria launches N1bn special fund for Nollywood

As part of its plan to support Nigeria’s creative industry, Bank of Industry has announced a special product, BOI NollyFund.

NollyFund would be available to movie producers for the production of films of international quality that would be screened on various platforms of movie distribution available both in Nigeria and internationally.

According to the bank, only commercially viable scripts with good storylines would benefit from the scheme.

It said it has set up a NollyFund implementation advisory group made up of two cinema management experts, one national film distributor, two production and post-production experts, two film critics/reviewers, and two film producers to critically review all film scripts and associated budgets submitted to BOI by movie producers and make technical recommendations to BOI management for final credit appraisal and approval.

BOI said the fund is in line with it’s credit policy and has an initial program limit of N1.0billion and a single obligor limit of N50million for individual loans.

The Bank of Industry has, in the recent past, financed the following creative-industry projects: Half of A Yellow Sun, Flower Girl, Digitization of Silverbird Cinemas, The Filmhouse, Viva Cinemas, Ozone Cinemas, G-media amongst others.

“The fund can be accessed by companies engaged in film production,” BOI said in a statement. “Applicants are expected to provide commercially viable scripts and demonstrate a track record of successful movie productions.

“The producer is expected to sign up a reputable distributor who would issue a minimum guarantee and provide a cash deposit of 5 per cent of the loan amount. A minimum guarantee is a cash advance payable to the producer by the distributor in exchange for the exclusive rights to distribute a film in contractually stipulated media in agreed sales territory.

“This is similar to the internationally accepted loan structures for movie production and will definitely provide a great boost to Nigeria’s Nollywood”.

Accredited distributors by BOI for the initiative include G-Media, Filmone Distribution Company, Silverbird Distribution Company and Genesis Deluxe Distribution Company; while accredited studio operators are Fans Connect Online Nigeria Limited (Afrinolly), Kingsley Ogoro Productions Limited and 4Screams International Nigeria Limited.