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From Lagos to Riyadh: The Rise of a New Afro-Arab Creative Powerhouse

19 October 2026 Comments (0) Business, Featured

Africa has the stories. The Gulf has growing ambitions to finance and distribute them. From Nigeria’s prolific film industry to Saudi Arabia’s expanding cinema ecosystem, a new network of cultural and commercial partnerships is taking shape. Film festivals, investment funds and streaming platforms are bringing African filmmakers closer to Arab audiences, opening opportunities for an industry long constrained by limited financing and fragmented distribution.

The numbers illustrate the potential. According to UNESCO’s 2021 report on the African film industry, Nollywood produces approximately 2,500 films annually, making Nigeria one of the world’s most prolific film-producing countries. Across Africa, the film and audiovisual sector generates an estimated $5 billion in annual revenue, according to figures cited by UNESCO, despite persistent challenges involving piracy, infrastructure and access to capital.

Meanwhile, Gulf countries are investing heavily in entertainment as part of broader economic diversification strategies. Saudi Arabia reopened commercial cinemas in 2018 after a decades-long prohibition, while its Red Sea International Film Festival, established in Jeddah in 2021, has developed into a meeting point for filmmakers, producers and investors from the Arab world, Africa and beyond.

The relationship is increasingly moving beyond film screenings and distribution agreements. Financing initiatives, production grants and international project markets are creating opportunities for African filmmakers to develop projects with partners in the Gulf.

Capital meets creativity: the Gulf’s growing interest in African cinema

Saudi Arabia’s entertainment ambitions are closely tied to Vision 2030, the kingdom’s economic diversification programme. Beyond expanding domestic cinema infrastructure, the country is positioning itself as a financing and networking hub for international film production.

The Red Sea Film Foundation provides one of the clearest examples of this strategy. Through its Red Sea Fund, the organisation supports film projects at different stages of development, production and post-production, including works by African and Arab filmmakers.

By 2025, the foundation reported supporting more than 340 projects from over 66 countries across the Arab world, Africa and Asia. Its activities extend beyond grants to include training programmes, industry networking and the Red Sea Souk, a project market designed to facilitate international partnerships.

The results are increasingly visible at major film festivals. In February 2025, nine projects supported by the foundation were presented at the Berlin International Film Festival or its associated industry market. They included The Heart Is a Muscle, a South African drama directed by Imran Hamdulay, and Ancestral Visions of the Future, a documentary by Lesotho-born filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.

These examples demonstrate how Gulf-based institutions are helping African productions gain access to financing and international visibility. However, financial support does not automatically constitute a formal coproduction: the distinction depends on the contractual and production arrangements of each project.

Some projects already illustrate deeper cross-regional involvement. The Mother of All Lies, directed by Morocco’s Asmae El Moudir, lists Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar among its production countries. Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters similarly brought together production partners from Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Europe.

Such collaborations provide a more concrete picture of the emerging Afro-Arab audiovisual ecosystem than investment announcements alone.

Beyond cinema: streaming, music and new audiences

Digital distribution is another important factor in the relationship between African and Arab creative industries.

Streaming platforms have reduced some of the geographical barriers that previously limited the circulation of films, television series and music. Services such as Shahid, operated by MBC Group, have helped expand digital entertainment distribution across the Middle East and North Africa, while international platforms have made African productions accessible to wider audiences.

However, reaching viewers across both regions remains a commercial challenge. Language, licensing arrangements, subscription affordability and audience preferences all influence whether a production can succeed beyond its domestic market.

Music offers another avenue for cultural exchange. Nigerian Afrobeats and South African amapiano have gained international recognition, creating opportunities for African artists, promoters and music companies to reach audiences in the Gulf.

Anghami illustrates the development of the region’s digital music infrastructure. Founded in Lebanon in 2012, the streaming company established its headquarters in Abu Dhabi and became publicly traded on Nasdaq in February 2022. Its expansion reflects the growing importance of regional platforms in music licensing, digital distribution and artist promotion.

Yet the commercial relationship between African music industries and Gulf entertainment businesses remains less documented than the global popularity of African genres. Concert appearances and streaming availability demonstrate audience interest, but should not be confused with evidence of large-scale joint investment or production.

Institutional support and the economics of collaboration

The expansion of Africa’s creative economy is also attracting greater attention from development finance institutions.

One of the most significant initiatives is Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX), launched in 2020 by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). The programme aims to support African creative industries through financing, infrastructure development, capacity building and international market access.

In October 2024, Afreximbank announced plans to increase its CANEX financing facility from $1 billion to $2 billion over the following three years. The initiative covers sectors including film, music, fashion and sports, reflecting growing institutional recognition of creative industries as potential sources of employment, investment and export revenue.

On the Gulf side, the Red Sea Souk has become a platform for connecting filmmakers with potential financiers and production partners. Its 2025 project market selected 40 film and television projects, including 24 projects in development or production, eight works in progress and eight episodic projects.

Together, these initiatives address complementary needs. African producers frequently face financing and distribution constraints, while Gulf-based institutions are seeking to develop international partnerships, strengthen production capabilities and expand their cultural influence.

Egypt and North Africa also occupy an important position in this evolving landscape. Their established film industries, Arabic-language markets and connections with both African and Middle Eastern production networks create opportunities for collaboration. The involvement of Egyptian, Moroccan and Tunisian partners in internationally financed films illustrates how these relationships can operate across several countries rather than through a simple Lagos-to-Riyadh corridor.

A promising market, but significant barriers remain

Despite these developments, Afro-Arab creative partnerships face considerable structural challenges.

Film and television coproductions require agreements covering financing, intellectual property, creative control, revenue sharing and distribution rights. Differences in national regulations, content restrictions and production standards can complicate negotiations, particularly for independent producers without extensive legal or commercial resources.

Language presents another challenge. Nigeria’s film industry produces content in English and several local languages, while much of the Gulf’s mainstream television market is Arabic-speaking. Subtitling, dubbing and culturally adapted marketing therefore remain essential to reaching audiences across both regions.

There is also a difference between supporting African films and building sustainable African production industries. International grants can help individual projects reach completion, but long-term growth requires stronger local financing systems, technical training, production infrastructure and reliable distribution networks.

For Gulf investors, commercial success will depend on identifying projects with viable audiences and distribution strategies rather than assuming that cultural proximity automatically translates into demand.

Nevertheless, the foundations of a broader partnership are becoming more visible. Saudi film funds are supporting African directors, international project markets are bringing producers together, and African financial institutions are expanding their commitments to the creative economy.

The next stage will depend on whether these initiatives produce sustained investment, recurring partnerships and films that succeed commercially across multiple markets.

From Lagos to Jeddah, Cairo and Riyadh, the opportunity is no longer simply to export African stories. It is to build the financing, production and distribution networks that allow African and Arab creative industries to grow together.

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After Canal+ Takes MultiChoice, African Creators and MENA Platforms Seize Their Moment

7 September 2026 Comments (0) Business, Featured

On 10 July 2026, Canal+ officially completed its takeover of MultiChoice Group, bringing the operator of DStv, GOtv and Showmax under full French ownership after a process that stretched more than two years. The deal valued MultiChoice at roughly 55 billion South African rand, or approximately $3 billion, and came with public interest commitments of nearly R26 billion over three years to cover local content investment and support for historically disadvantaged businesses in the audiovisual sector, according to New African Magazine. Canal+ now holds a dominant pay-TV and streaming position across more than 50 African markets.

Yet the transition is already generating turbulence beneath the corporate headline. MultiChoice had launched Showmax in 2015 as an African-born competitor to Netflix, but the platform accumulated losses of $522 million between 2023 and 2025. Canal+ has signaled it will sunset Showmax as part of a broader plan to cut approximately $479 million in costs across the combined business by 2030, per Techpoint Africa. For Nigerian, South African and Kenyan producers who had relied on Showmax commissions, the practical question is immediate: where do their next financing and distribution deals come from?

The answer arrives from two directions at once: locally built streaming platforms and inbound commercial interest from Middle Eastern operators.

 Bets on Itself with Kava

The most visible homegrown response to the shifting landscape is Kava, a streaming platform launched in August 2025 by two of Nollywood’s most recognized institutions: Inkblot Studios, behind a string of Nigerian box office hits, and Filmhouse Group, West Africa’s largest cinema chain. The platform debuted with more than 30 premium Nollywood titles, offering subscribers exclusive post-theatrical releases and a schedule of weekly additions.

“Kava is more than a streaming service. It’s a bold new chapter for Nollywood, designed to meet the growing demand for premium, authentic African content,” the founders said in a statement reported by TechCabal. The ambition is to do what no African-led platform has yet managed: turn local storytelling into a globally sustainable streaming business.

The underlying numbers support that aspiration. Nigeria’s over-the-top video market is projected to reach $1.22 billion in 2025, according to data cited by TechCabal, while Africa’s broader subscription video-on-demand sector is forecast to grow from $2.71 billion in 2024 to $3.67 billion by 2027, according to Statista. The challenge Kava faces is that the platforms best placed to monetize that growth have historically been non-African: Netflix and Amazon Prime both poured resources into Nigerian content before scaling back acquisition budgets, citing low subscriber penetration. IrokoTV, an earlier attempt at a dedicated Nollywood platform, exited the Nigerian market entirely.

Kava’s founders argue their advantage lies in owning both production infrastructure and distribution, rather than licensing content from studios that retain leverage. Whether that vertical integration proves durable will be one of the sector’s defining tests over the next two years.

MENA Operators Look South for African Content

While African platforms push outward for global audiences, operators from the Middle East are moving in the opposite direction. Media World, a content aggregator and mobile services platform with client telecoms including Zain Iraq and Jawwal Palestine, has recently opened a Lagos office, its first in sub-Saharan Africa. Speaking at the Telemedia Johannesburg 2026 conference, the company’s content acquisition and partnership manager Samer Al Ramahi described the company as being “on the hunt for partnerships to integrate various services like games, esports, and streaming content” from African providers, with the goal of distributing them as white-label products across its MENA footprint, per Telemedia Magazine.

The broader context for that scouting trip is a MENA streaming market that is growing fast and competing fiercely for differentiated content. MBC Group’s Shahid platform reported a 28.2% year-on-year revenue rise in 2025, boosted partly by a first-of-its-kind bundling deal with Netflix in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region, according to Variety. As established MENA players scale up, African genres represent both a new content category and an access point to diaspora communities with purchasing power.

Music offers the clearest proof of that audience appetite. Afrobeats listeners grew 22% globally in 2025, according to Spotify’s annual Wrapped report, cited by Techpoint Africa, with Nigerian and South African artists dominating Africa’s most-streamed lists. Gulf touring and licensing activity by African artists has expanded in parallel, building the audience base that streaming and gaming platforms want to monetize.

Africa’s Cross-Regional Content Market Takes Shape

The convergence of these forces, Canal+’s restructuring of Africa’s legacy pay-TV market, the emergence of African-owned streaming platforms and the commercial scouting of MENA aggregators in Lagos and Johannesburg, points to a realignment that is real but still unresolved. The players are in motion; the rules of the new ecosystem are not yet written.

For African creators, the proliferation of potential distribution channels is genuine progress. For investors, the question of which platform model generates sustainable returns remains open. Fragmentation is a risk: multiple smaller platforms competing for overlapping catalog rights and the same subscriber budgets could dilute rather than build value. For MENA operators, Africa offers differentiation and scale, alongside regulatory complexity and the challenge of building content curation expertise far from home.

What is already clear is that Africa’s screen industry is no longer organized around a single dominant gatekeeper. From Kava’s Nollywood catalog to Media World’s Lagos outpost, the architecture of a new cross-regional content economy is being laid. How quickly it coheres, and whose terms it operates on, will shape the careers of African filmmakers, the strategies of Gulf platforms and the viewing habits of audiences from Accra to Riyadh over the coming decade.

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Nollywood : the Nigeria’s burgeoning film industry

26 November 2023 Comments (0) Business, Featured

Nollywood, Nigeria’s second-largest film industry, has risen from modest beginnings, revolutionizing storytelling and challenging societal norms, making a significant impact on the global film landscape.

Nollywood, Nigeria’s burgeoning film industry, has rapidly evolved into a global cinematic sensation over the last few decades. Emerging from modest beginnings in 1992, it now stands as one of the world’s most prosperous and influential film sectors, fundamentally reshaping our perceptions of movie production.

Originally rooted in Nigeria’s rich oral traditions, Nollywood draws from centuries of storytelling through song and dance. This deep-seated tradition can still be heavily observed through Nollywood films, where stories often interweave traditional music and dance, adding a unique cultural vibrancy to the industry.

From Humble Beginnings

Nollywood has come a long way since it took off in the early 1990s when trailblazers such as Kenneth Nnebue and Ola Balogun played pivotal roles in its birth. Kenneth Nnebue made history by producing Nigeria’s first feature film, “Living in Bondage” (1992), which immediately captivated audiences and set the stage for a new era in Nigerian cinema.

The film’s success inspired other aspiring filmmakers to enter the industry using video cameras and minimal budgets. These early productions were characterized by their resourcefulness, often filmed on location without the benefit of professional equipment or crews.

Fast-forward to the present, Nollywood has transformed into the second-largest film industry globally, second only to Bollywood in India. Every year, it produces over 2,000 movies and boasts an estimated revenue of $1.2 billion, establishing itself as one of the most prolific film industries worldwide.

Statistics On Nollywood Film Industry 

During the first quarter of 2023, Nollywood exhibited its unwavering productivity by delivering a total of 280 films according to Alhaji Adedayo Thomas, the Executive Director/CEO of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB).

This figure of 280 films actually represents a decrease compared to the 340 films produced in the fourth quarter of 2022, marking an 18 percent decline.

However, this slight dip does not diminish the ongoing significance of Nollywood in the larger context of Nigeria’s economy. Breaking down the production areas, the NFVCB reported that Lagos, as a prominent hub, took the lead with 106 movies.

Following closely was Nigeria’s federal capital, Abuja, contributing 99 films, while Onitsha added 32 to the cinematic landscape. Other cities, such as Abeokuta, Kano, and Benin, also played their part, albeit on a smaller scale.

Nollywood’s Strategy To Become An Empire

There are a couple of key features that helped make Nollywood into what it is today. First of all : the low production costs. The hallmark of Nollywood’s success lies in its ability to craft compelling narratives on limited budgets, often releasing these films directly to the video market instead of going through production companies and studios. Second : they are relatable! These films courageously confront the daily social issues and challenges that confront Nigerians, making them not just movies but mirrors reflecting the lives of millions. 

Also, Nollywood challenges time-honored values and beliefs, nudging individuals to view the world with fresh perspectives. Through their narratives, these films become catalysts for change, encouraging people to question, evolve, and aspire to a different reality.

Last but not least, Nollywood is an Ever-Growing Industry. The industry has, by employing over 200,000 individuals, made a substantial contribution to job creation. Moreover, Nollywood’s reach extends far beyond Nigeria’s borders, with its films captivating audiences in over 50 countries. This international appeal brings foreign investment, elevating the economic fortunes of Nigeria in a globalized world.

Obstacles Ahead For The Nollywood Film Industry

Despite its remarkable size and reach, the industry faces certain obstacles that warrant attention and innovative solutions. One of the most pressing challenges confronting Nollywood is the perennial need for increased funding.Nigerian films are typically produced on modest budgets, which can limit the production values and overall quality of the final product.

This budgetary constraint hinders Nollywood’s ability to compete on a global stage, where Hollywood blockbusters and other regional film industries often command significant financial resources for grand productions.

Rampant Piracy and Distribution Dilemma

Another formidable challenge that continues to plague Nollywood is piracy. Given the relatively low production costs of Nigerian films, they are particularly vulnerable to being illegally copied and distributed. Pirated copies frequently flood the market, and these unauthorized versions are sold on the streets at a fraction of their original price.

While the industry enjoys strong viewership within Africa, expanding its reach globally remains a complex endeavor. Getting Nigerian films into international movie theaters can be a time-consuming process, as many distributors prioritize established foreign films with proven track records of audience appeal.

How Nollywood Has Impacted The Globe

Nollywood’s impact on the film industry is undeniable. As the second-largest film industry globally, it has reshaped storytelling, challenged societal norms, and made substantial economic contributions.

Despite facing challenges, Nollywood’s influence continues to grow, highlighting the remarkable power of cinema to transcend borders and inspire change. It is a vibrant testament to the enduring and transformative impact of storytelling on a global scale.

photos : olorisupergal.com / miro.medium.com/

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