Currency Pivot

Nigeria: Nollywood set to hit the market as Iroko targets London’s alternative bourse

By David Whitehouse

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Posted on February 9, 2021 17:14

A crew member holds a boom microphone during the filming of “Dazzling Mirage”, at a location in the outskirt of Lagos © Filming of Nollywood hit “Dazzling Mirage”, directed by Tunde Kelani on the outskirts of Lagos. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye
Filming of Nollywood hit “Dazzling Mirage”, directed by Tunde Kelani on the outskirts of Lagos. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye

West African film-streaming service IrokoTV will seek to list on London’s Alternative Investment Market within the next 12 months, CEO Jason Njoku tells The Africa Report.

The sale would aim to raise between $20m and $30m, and would value the whole business at between $80m and $100m, Njoku says from his base in Accra. Discussions with brokers will start in the coming weeks, says Njoku, who holds a stake of 18% in the debt-free company.

Iroko has the world’s largest online catalogue of Nollywood films. Njoku has redefined the company’s strategy to target diasporic markets in Europe and North America, rather than growth in its main West Africa markets of Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

He points to the weakness of the region’s currencies and reduced levels of disposable income as a result of Covid-19 as factors that prompted the shift.

  • “Consumer confidence has essentially collapsed,” he says. “The macro has dominated us in Africa.”
  • The company closed its offices in New York and London, and cut jobs last year to reduce costs.

When Iroko started in Africa

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