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LAGOS — Netflix has denied reports it is pulling out of Nigeria but local film producers and industry insiders told Semafor Africa the streaming giant has been cutting back on original productions.
“We are not exiting Nigeria,” wrote a Netflix spokesperson in an email.”We will continue to invest in Nigerian stories to delight our members.”
However two filmmakers who have worked with Netflix on Nigerian productions said some local filmmakers were told last month that their Netflix original projects were either being put on hold or shelved. The conversations with filmmakers were said to have come days after Netflix threw a glamorous “Lights, Camera… Naija!” party on Nov. 2 with a raft of Nollywood actors and celebrities at a venue in Lagos.
The devaluation of the local currency and runaway inflation are said to have made production costs unsustainable in the near term.
Filmmakers said they believe Netflix will continue to license Nigerian films, but likely only ones which already had some traction at local cinemas or elsewhere rather than investing in production.
Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, whose comments are believed to have sparked the speculation, said he never suggested Netflix was exiting the country: “I clearly said they are cutting down on their exposure.”
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Netflix signalled its Nigeria ambitions with the acquisition of Lionheart, a film produced in 2018 by industry veteran Genevieve Nnaji, as its first original in the country. The streamer has since commissioned and co-produced multiple original series and films in the years since, opening up a new medium for Nollywood’s deep bench of screenwriters and producers to complement theatrical releases.
The King’s Horsemen, a Yoruba language epic that premiered on the platform in 2022, became the first cinematic adaptation of a novel by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. Last year’s hit crime thriller The Black Book had the kind of global reach that appeared to signal to audiences that the world was ready for African storytelling and that it would be a big part of Netflix’s content future.