Afolayan Calls for Government Help After N8bn Investment in Film Village

Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan is asking the government for help after putting over N8bn of his own money into his resort. He said the lack of electricity has made it hard to keep the place running.

Afolayan shared this during a chat with former Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun on the Nidacity podcast, which was posted on YouTube on Tuesday.

He mentioned that the resort has not had electricity since it started, which forces him to depend on diesel for power.

The filmmaker explained that the rising costs of diesel are becoming too much for him, and he is thinking about shutting down the resort. "I believe so much in this country. We haven’t had electricity in KAP Village since the beginning. So we’ve been running on diesel. I did a post a few months ago that I cannot be like, we can’t sustain this diesel thing. We’re going to close the resort, but then there is another friend who said I will sell diesel to you on credit and I’m like It’s still not sustainable," Afolayan said.

He is now looking for other energy options. An investment of about N200m has been made in green energy, but it is not enough to power the whole resort.

"So right now we’re talking to a lot of people to try and see how to do green energy. We did one last year, which cost about N200m, but it’s not enough to power the entire resort," he said.

Afolayan stated that he has invested more than N8bn in the resort from his own funds and believes the government should step in with some support.

"And if we’ve managed to do that, I think there should be some sort of support, like from government agencies," he said.

He pointed out that many businesses that received government grants had invested much less than he has.

"I know people are not even doing one quarter of what we’re doing, and they get a lot of grants from government," he said.

Afolayan also talked about building 100 rooms at his film village. He did this because the cast and crew of his movie, Anikulapo, had trouble finding accommodation during filming.

He said actors like Sola Sobowale and Bimbo Ademoye had to bring their personal items from home since there was not enough place for the production team.

"When we shot Anikulapo, we didn’t have accommodation. We were squatting in people’s houses. Sola Sobowale and Bimbo Ademoye even brought their mattresses and freezers from home. So I had to build 100 rooms in the film village to make everyone comfortable," he said.