Piracy and huge revenue loss in creative industry

The Federal Government recently disclosed that about 70 per cent of revenue accruable to Nigerian film industry yearly is lost to piracy. It also warned that the growing threat is capable of putting jobs, investments and earnings in the creative industry at risk. The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, who spoke on the issue at the recent  National Seminar on Copyright, Cybersecurity and Nigeria’s Creative and Digital Economy in Abuja, bemoaned that piracy had grown beyond conventional copyright infringement.

He said that illegal streaming platforms, pirate websites and rogue digital services had made piracy a sophisticated and borderless enterprise. Fagbemi lamented that copyrighted works could be reproduced, modified and distributed globally within seconds, while the perpetrators and illicit proceeds could be concealed across jurisdictions. According to him, “online piracy cannot be tackled effectively by copyright enforcement authorities operating in isolation.” He said that the proposed Abuja Copyright Action Plan would provide a coordinated framework for tackling online piracy with specific actions and implementations timelines, among other things.

According to UNESCO data and its landmark mapping report, ‘The African Film Industry: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Growth’, the Nollywood film industry loses between 50 per cent and over 75 per cent of its potential revenue to piracy. It also said that while the Nigerian film industry produces over 2,500 films annually and generates cultural value, severe infrastructure gap and counterfeit syndicates significantly drains its profits.

It estimates that Nigeria alone lost N3billion in revenue from creative works in a single year due to digital piracy, according to 2019 data. It is also estimated that up to 80 per cent of individual film distributions fail to generate legitimate returns due to unauthorised copying and illegal streaming.

It has also been reported that the Nigerian film industry loses more than ₦15 billion annually to piracy while the book industry and the broader creative industry lose thrice more than that. Sadly, limited technological infrastructure for digital and online tracking has slowed down the expected performance of the Nigerian Copyright Commission. Lack of strong convictions of criminals and precedents to aid the justice system have also constituted a stumbling block. Nigerians’ preference for cheap pirated copies of creative works has encouraged piracy.

However, it is cheering that the local box office in Nigeria has been receiving massive boom. Nollywood’s GDP contribution is pegged at $6.4 billion, but direct domestic box office ticket sales have surpassed N11billion in recent times, enhanced by streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, international licensing, and global soft power. In fact, the total box office generated ₦15.6 billion in 2025 and is projected to hit ₦20 billion by the end of 2026.

Despite the Copyright Act, 2022, which was signed into law on March 17, 2023, and repealed the older 2004 Act, books, bestsellers of Nigerian authors and recommended texts are pirated at will, without consequences. Owners of intellectual property rights should not be left at the mercy of pirates. The law covers literary, musical, and artistic works all through the duration of the owner’s lifetime and 70 years after the author’s death. The law also protects cinematograph films, sound recordings, and broadcasts: 50 years from publication.

We condemn the flagrant infringement of copyright laws by counterfeit syndicates and call for cooperation and intelligence sharing among enforcement agencies involved in checking piracy. We believe that arresting and prosecuting those engaged in counterfeiting of films, music, books and other works of art will check the menace. It is good that the federal government has launched the Abuja Copyright Action Plan to check piracy of creative works.

Also, the government should go after pirates and diligently prosecute them. Filmmakers, musicians, authors and owners of creative works should reap bountifully from their intellectual works. Nobody should deprive them of the proceeds of their intellectual property. Piracy kills creativity. It robs the artists of the proceeds of their artistic talents.

Besides, the National Film and Video Censor’s Board should also do more than working with telecommunications regulators to monitor and investigate the illegal sharing and streaming of Nigerian films on encrypted platforms, as well as unlicensed streaming by telecom operators. Its taskforce should conduct more physical raids aimed at cutting off illegal film distribution channels. Money recovered from the exercise should be restituted to the owners of the films.