Nigerian comedian and filmmaker Basketmouth has called out Nollywood producers for allegedly mismanaging funds allocated by global streaming platforms, which he claims is undermining the quality of Nigerian films.
Speaking in an interview, Basketmouth alleged that many producers divert significant portions of the budgets intended for movie production into personal expenses, leaving only a fraction for the actual filmmaking process.
“When the streaming platforms came in, they gave money to these producers 1.5 million or whatever they were given and they used about 10% of that money to make the movie,” he stated.
After discovering the misuse of funds, the comedian further revealed that streaming platforms began paying actors directly to ensure accountability. However, he claimed that some producers still found ways to manipulate the system by coercing actors into returning a portion of their pay.
“Even when the streaming platforms decided to pay the actors directly, these producers went behind and told the actors to pay half of the money back to them. You can verify this anywhere,” he added.
Basketmouth expressed frustration over how this alleged malpractice affects the final output, lamenting that some Nollywood productions lack the quality expected of their budgets.
“When you take money meant for production and use it for other things like buying houses or cars, you can’t expect the movie to be 100%. That’s why some of our epic movies end up looking like stage plays,” he said.
His comments have reignited conversations about financial transparency and accountability within the Nigerian film industry.