Lagos state is hosting the maiden edition of the Nigeria media content exhibition featuring content makers in the country and abroad.
The three-day Nigerian Electronic Media Content Expo and Awards (NEMCEA) 2022 explores opportunities in TV, Radio and Media Content
The Broadcast Media Africa in collaboration with the Electronic Media Content Association of Nigeria, EMCOAN, organized the event as stakeholders in the film, online and broadcast industry on Monday converged at the Radisson Blue Hotel in Ikeja, Lagos state
With Nigeria as one of the biggest electronic media content markets in Africa, industry players believe Africa’s most populous country now has a content market to cater for its huge electronic media content industry.
“In a country with over 150 television channels both public and private and more than 350 independent television and media content production companies, presence of global and local content streaming platfroms like Netflix, Showmax, IrokoTV, it was unacceptable not to have a content market,” Theophilus Akatugba, NEMCEA Project Director, told the gathering in Lagos.
According to Akatugba, NEMCEA will also help put Lagos, the host city, where the government wants it to be: at par with the other great film festival cities of the world, where people at home and abroad can come to find expertise and resources for electronic media content.
The three-day event also provides opportunities for content makers to connect with potential sponsors and buyers such as international streaming service, Amazon.
“I am already having interesting discussions and just like my colleagues, I know that anyone who is prepared has great opportunities to just cease the moment. It’s not every day you get an opportunity to pitch to Amazon or to meet the Amazon executives. So it’s’ one-stop shopping centre,” Victor Okhai, a filmmaker and National President of the Director’s Guild of Nigeria, told Voice of Nigeria.
Okhai said the world was interested in what’s happening in Nigeria and that means opportunities for content makers, especially with the low barrier of entry provided by digital platforms.
“A time will come that you won’t have the opportunity you’re having now because by then it would be too competitive. And you have so many streaming platforms now. So creators are having the time of their life right now.”
According to the Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) initiative, an African Union initiative supported by the World Bank Group, Nigeria could take a bigger bite of the global digital economy – worth an estimated $11.5 trillion in 2016 – by strengthening its digital infrastructure, unlocking investment, boosting skills training for its youth population, and implementing reforms to create jobs and economic diversification.
Although many rural areas still lack internet access, Nigeria currently boasts of being Africa’s largest mobile phone market with millions of subscribers connected online, providing opportunities for content makers to compete to reach their desired audience.
The Sales Manager for West Africa at SES, a global telecommunications network provider and exhibitor at the event Joy Emineke, said;
“Today’s viewers have access to an unprecedented amount of live and on-demand programming,”
“The challenge is getting them to watch it on your platform. Content is king when it comes to attracting and retaining viewers. You need a packed library that can be viewed in high quality across any device.”
Another participant at the event, Mrs Jibe Ologeh, President of EMCOAN said;
“The NBC is worried about the influx of foreign children’s programming and is geared towards the production of Nigerian children’s broadcast content that will redirect the psyche of the Nigerian child to love Nigeria.”
Some of the highlights of the events include panel discussions and an NBC special workshop for children’s programming.
PIAK
