The Story of Nollywood - The Positives (4)

The big picture that emerges about Nollywood, Nigeria’s movie industry, is that a nation that is blessed with so many creative talents cannot build a thriving intellectual property industry. It contributes little to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is in need of reforms

1. Nigeria has evolved its own unique sounding music, which was non-existent before the likes of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Sunny Ade and Bongos Ikwue. The awareness and response to our music is increasing steadily and rapidly, slowly leading to greater patronage of our indigenous music, which of course has a positive effect on album sales of recording artistes..

2. More corporate bodies have deployed the use of artistes as brand ambassadors and icons, which has led to a reasonable increase in the earning avenues and power of artistes, but in the long term, they are still exploiting the industry without giving back.

3. Our music is gaining more recognition internationally, with the increasing nominations of Nigerian artistes for international awards in big music events such as the MTV, MOBOS and Kora awards.

4. The NCC (Copyright Commission) seems to be more focused in its fight to counter piracy leading to more anti-piracy awareness which will help the cause of all stakeholders in the industry

5. Music videos (particularly local ones) have increased in quality in leaps over the past two years, giving Nigerian music more mileage internationally.

6. More people are getting into various aspects of the industry in a more organised manner leading to a better cohesion within stakeholders

The Nigerian Copyrights Commission has confined the use of its broad powers under the Copyright Act  to burning physical pirated CDS, rather than focusing on regulating the activities of the duplicating plants, educating the public about the effects of their activities and creating an enabling environment for music to thrive in Nigeria