AFRIFF 2015: Filmmakers gather for BoI’s NollyFund

Nollywood was represented at the grand opening of the fifth edition of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in Lagos penultimate Thursday during the Bank of Industry’s (BOI) interactive session on the NollyFund scheme. The scheme, which had an initial Programme limit of N1.0 billion and a single obligor limit of N50 million for individual […]

Nollywood was represented at the grand opening of the fifth edition of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in Lagos penultimate Thursday during the Bank of Industry’s (BOI) interactive session on the NollyFund scheme.
The scheme, which had an initial Programme limit of N1.0 billion and a single obligor limit of N50 million for individual loans, provided stakeholders and industry practitioners the platform with staff of the bank to interact better on the much publicised BoI NollyFund.
The special product enables Nigeria’s leading movie producers receive financial support to produce international quality films and screen them through various platforms of movie distribution available both in Nigeria and abroad.
BoI’s Divisional Head, Large Enterprises, Mr. Babatunde Joseph, during the session, according to a release, reiterated that the NollyFund was created to give an opportunity to Nollywood stars and filmmakers to make films, tell their stories and also make their profit, while helping them with various distribution platforms in Nigeria and Africa at large.
Kunle Afolayan’s ‘The CEO,’ for which the loan was obtained, is predicted to be one of the best pan-African movies to come out of Nigeria.
Afolayan was on the panel alongside veteran actress, Joke Silva and film critic, Shaibu Husseini, joined Mr. Babatunde and Mrs. Uche Nwuka, Group Head, Creative Desk at BoI, to shed light on the workability of the Nollywood fund, which several filmmakers see as a welcome development.
Filmmakers from other African countries who noted that such a scheme does not exist in their countries wanted to know if they are eligible to access the fund. Although Babatunde said it is a scheme meant to develop just the Nigerian creative sector, the visiting filmmakers praised the initiative, saying that Nigerian filmmakers were lucky to have such a developmental agency interested in film business.
Afolayan stressed that Nollywood celebrities needed to be business oriented to understand the art of filmmaking, adding that they needed to make a checklist of documents required in support of the loan applications.
The event provided more cheering news for filmmakers, as representatives of Access Bank announced that it will support the Nollywood development initiative with another N1billion loan fund.