Policy, data and culture can improve fortunes of African film industry

Kenya is working on a new film policy that will hopefully turn the film industry into a multibillion shilling industry.

This is according to the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and the Arts Hassan Wario, but he did not disclose the details. Mr Wario was commenting on a new report by the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) on the status of Africa’s film industry launched in Nairobi on July 13.

A film policy will go a long way but according to the report, African countries need to keep data on the film industry and use it to attract support from both governments and the private sector.

“Unlike ‘well established’ and known sectors such as manufacturing, tourism or agriculture, data on the creative economic activity is not captured, documented nor summarised in a way that lends to easy decision making,” reads the report.

Most information used in compiling the report is dated (written before year 2000), academic dissertations, and highlights by reports commissioned by United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) or were media stories that cannot be authenticated, according to the authors.

According to the report, only Nigeria produced an average of more than 101 movies annually among countries of the African Union. South Africa and Egypt, produced 21 to 60 movies annually. The rest of Africa either produced no film or data was unavailable within the period under review.

There is little information and data on Africa’s film industry, denying it a chance to thrive despite its potential to contribute significantly to the gross domestic products of African economies.

Mr Wario said the report on Africa’s state of film industry should be carried out often to guide the policy dialogue between member states and the African private sector.

“It provides the basis for better planning, public sector resource allocation and investment decisions. We encourage FEPACI and its partner the Africa Union Commission to update the report every two years as we develop this critical sector,” he said.

The film industry in Nigeria generates $590 million annually, while South Africa earns $300 million. Kenya and Egypt earn $70 million and $25 million respectively according to FEPACI. 

The film sector currently supports five million jobs on the continent with the number expected to increase to 20 million in the next 10 years. For East Africa to compete favourably with other countries like Nigeria and South Africa, telling its own stories should be the trend.

“East Africans make movies for people from outside the region, therefore giving a small touch of culture. Nigeria and South Africa film makers make movies for themselves and therefore attract home and away audience contributing highly to their GDP,” said Jane Munene, a veteran Kenyan filmmaker and producer who is also the secretary-general of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers.

According to the FEPACI report, Nigeria has banked on its culture to grow its film industry.

“The success of Nollywood illustrates how culture can help to diversify an economy highly dependent on a single commodity that is oil. Research attributed to Ecobank, found that the market potential of the movie industry in Nigeria could be at least $3.2 billion a year,” according to the report.

Africa film makers at the launch of the report endorsed the establishment of an African Audio-visual Cinema Commission and an African Film Fund to solve challenges such as lack of funding, poor infrastructure and distribution challenges.

The commission and the fund are expected to help the continent step up the production and distribution of quality films and television programmes, although it remains to be seen how this will be co-ordinated. 

The Commission will also put in place a regulatory framework to include mechanisms that protect the industrial and intellectual properties of film makers.

Actors will be part of the technical team that will draft and drive the formation of the two. The first draft of the proposal on the two will be submitted to the AU in November.