NBS: Nigeria’s 2020 Film Production Highest In Five Years Despite Pandemic

Despite the stifling impact of the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic on the film industry, Nigeria recorded more productions in the year 2020, new data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.

The bureau, on Friday, published Nollywood’s production and censorship data spanning the Q2 of 2017 to Q1 of 2021.

The report showed that, despite social restrictions and precautionary measures that forced cinemas to either shut down or operate at a limited capacity in 2020, a total of 2,599 movies were produced and censored in the year.

This comes in sharp contrast to the 450 recorded in 2017, the 565 in 2018, 700 in 2019, and 416 as of Q1 of 2021.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the number of Nollywood movies produced in Q1 of 2021 hit 416 as against the 903 recorded in Q4 of 2020. This indicates a decline of -53.9 percent.

Year-on-year, movie productions in Q1 of 2020 stood at 407 as against Q1 of 2021 — recording a growth of 2.2 percent.

NBS data also showed that Lagos recorded the highest number of movies produced by location in Q1 of 2021 with 149.

This is closely followed by Onitsha with 140 while Benin and Bauchi recorded the least figure with two movies each.

While the data is validated by the NBS, it is provided by the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB).