I’ve invested over N8bn in my film village, need govt support — Afolayan

Nigerian filmmaker and entrepreneur, Kunle Afolayan, has appealed to the government for support after investing over N8bn of his personal funds in his resort, saying the lack of electricity has made operations increasingly difficult.

Afolayan disclosed this during an interview with the former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, on the Nidacity podcast, released on YouTube on Tuesday.

He said the resort had been without electricity since its establishment, forcing him to rely on diesel to power its operations.

According to the filmmaker, the rising cost of diesel had become unsustainable, prompting him to consider closing 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 said he was now exploring alternative energy sources, adding that an investment of about N200m had already been made in green energy, although it was insufficient to power the entire 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 said he had invested more than N8bn in developing the resort from his personal funds and believed the government should provide some form of 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 added that some businesses receiving government grants had invested significantly less than his establishment.

“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 revealed that he built 100 rooms at his film village after the cast and crew of his movie, Anikulapo, struggled with accommodation during production.

He said actors, including Sola Sobowale and Bimbo Ademoye, had to bring personal belongings from their homes because there was no adequate accommodation 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.