| New project to track
profit in Nollywood
By OBIDIKE JERRY(pajerry2005@yahoo.com)
Saturday, September
22, 2007
 |
•Efere
Ozako
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
| |
The entertainment business in the country has blossomed into
a big industry where millions of Nigerians ply their trade
and earn a living. Different genres of products are churned
out on regular bases and stakeholders reap the benefits of
their labour while consumers get entertained as well.
Whereas it is easy to carry out cost-benefit analysis in the
entertainment industry in other climes, it is almost an impossibility
to do same in Nigeria. For instance, at the push of a button
one easily gets relevant data about a Hollywood movie like
the cost of production and the revenue so far churned out.
It will be like living in fool’s paradise to demand
such information from Nollywood, our own equivalent.
Turning the tide But one stakeholder has resolved to move
the industry away from this pathetic position to the next
level of profitability. It would come in form of a talk shop
(dtalkshop) which organizes a seminar series called “Wetin
Lawyers dey do…Sef for Entertainment Industry 11.”
This year’s seminar tagged “The Entertainment
Industry-where is the money?” was organized recently
at the Shell Hall, Muson Centre, Lagos.
According to Mr. Efere Ozako, a director in dtalkshop, the
platform for this project, this year’s seminar was meant
to discuss how the stakeholders can reap optimal benefits
from the industry and the lawyers’ explicit roles in
bringing it about.
Various resource persons made the outing worth the sweat from
the banking, business education, government, and even entertainment
industry. They were lectures to the players on how to negotiate
better contracts, investment portfolios, and how to tidy up
their books to get the attention of investors especially the
banking industry. In her presentation on “Taxation and
The Entertainment Industry” the Director General of
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Ms. Ifueko Omoigui,
who was represented by Hajia Segio Shimel, Regional Coordinator
of Lagos Office of the FIRS, argued that it has been “mixed
blessing for the industry in the past two decades.
While the earnings of some musicians, film actors and producers,
comedians and even sports people have increased substantially,
the entertainment industry could still be regarded as underdeveloped
by global standards, in terms of favourable contract terms,
management of the artiste and access to investment options.
Working for stipend As a result, some entertainment people
retire with little or nothing to show for an otherwise illustrious
career.” She added that from the “tax administration
point, it is easy to see that when the industry stabilizes
and grows, the entertainment people would be better positioned
to fulfill their civic and constitutional responsibility of
regularly paying their taxes towards national development.”
She, therefore, challenged all stakeholders to find ways to
assist the industry to “overcome its constraints so
that it can contribute more meaningfully to national development.
With the aid of data compiled from the entertainment industry
in America and Europe, Mr. Kayode Fadahunsi, who represented
the Chief Executive of BGL, Mr. Albert Okumagba, delved into
cost-benefit analysis of products of the entertainment industry
abroad. He kept the audience in awe with data on cost of production
and revenue generated and profit accruable to some select
films in the industry.
This presentation more than anything else adverted the minds
of the audience to the gold mine that is yet untapped in the
industry. The import is that while it was possible to get
accurate production cost and earnings from similar industries
abroad such luxury cannot be contemplated in Nigeria. No wonder
despite the alleged 20 million (15 million in Nigeria and
five million abroad) audience of each Nollywood product, investors
still remain skeptical about the beautiful bride. |
