African producers are drawing the interest of new, non-historical partners such as the United States and China as African stories become more globally appealing. Moreover, these new players have expressed interest in expanding to Francophone and Portuguese-speaking Africa, notwithstanding their current focus on English-speaking Africa. In addition, the US and China are huge proponents of a market-driven, commercial approach to African film and television, disrupting previous financing models.
France, in particular, has been a significant supporter of African films for decades. Through co-production treaties with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia.
These public-funding mechanisms are guided by a vision whose primary purpose is to encourage cultural diversity without regard for profit. However, the past couple of years have seen a marked increase in interest from other stakeholders. These new players, mainly from the United States and China, are private companies with a distinctly commercial ethos. Netflix has been the most apparent American player thus far, having made several high-profile moves since its launch on the continent in 2019.
Meanwhile, China, which is now the world’s largest box office market in terms of revenue, has also been advancing into Africa. Huahua Media, a Chinese media conglomerate, partnered with FilmOne Entertainment, a Nigerian studio, to co-produce the first major China-Nigeria film and invested in Nigeria’s first million-dollar film fund FilmOne Entertainment also administers. StarTimes (local pay television channels), CCTV Africa (a Nairobi-based media hub), and Huawei (optical cables and 5G technology) have all made significant investments in the media space, indicating a strong and rising Chinese interest in African creative content.
This expanding global demand is bringing new investment opportunities to Africa. Notably also from within the continent. Afreximbank, the development bank that announced the opening of a US$500 million facility to support Africa’s creative industries in 2020, is now working on the first pan-African film finance mechanism. Once completed, the project will deliver African-sourced and managed funding to commercially viable companies across the continent through various financing products.
