How unemployed Nigerian youths can take advantage of N1tr entertainment industry
The Nigerian media and entertainment industry offers huge prospects for millions of unemployed youths in the country, the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report has indicated.
The report projects that the entertainment industry will hit $2.8 billion by 2021.
Many youths who encounter difficulties in finding jobs, particularly in the entertainment industry, are encouraged to embrace the opportunities yet untapped within the industry.
Alex Okosi, the Senior Vice President & Managing Director of Viacom International Media Networks Africa, also shared his excitement about the report in a recent interview.
Okosi said the report was “something to cheer”, as the growth was “coming from a low base; it is really an impressive number to think about us getting to that point in 2021.”
He added: “I think the potential is much higher to even make that number much bigger. I think it is going to happen as I mentioned before when things like measurement going to the television space, when our content continues to thrive, when digital migration happen and with the platform of new players entering the space.”
There are several young musicians, comedians, dancers, and actors who have found it very challenging to break into the industry, but Okosi thinks “there is opportunity for us to monetise the creativity in the industry in much bigger way.”
“What is good though is, as a country, we are now outputting incredibly high quality content and which I think before that was not the case. Now, there is a demand for the content that comes from Nigeria. Of course that is going to spread the growth in the entertainment space,” he said.
The Viacom executive was also of the opinion that great content would go a long way in rewarding all content creators.
He said, “At the end of the day, the content you watch, the experience you have, the music you listen to, the films you watch, anything that you do, is all about content. So, the more we are able to deliver quality to consumers that they want, that growth, the potentials for it will be much more bigger by 2021 as long as our economy remains stable and people have income to spend on those pieces.”
