Veteran actress Patience Ozokwor, fondly called Mama G, has put her voice behind one of the most uncomfortable conversations in the Nigerian entertainment industry.
The reason many celebrated Nollywood performers find themselves in financial hardship, she says, comes down to one missing word: royalties.
Ozokwor made the remarks during a recent appearance on the popular podcast “Curiosity Made Me Ask,” hosted by comedian and content creator Isbae U. Her words were direct, and for anyone who has followed the quiet suffering of older Nollywood stars, they hit hard.
The actress explained that most actors in Nigeria collect a single payment when they show up to shoot a film, and that is where their earnings end. It does not matter how many millions of times that movie gets watched, shared, or resold afterward. The actor sees nothing more.
“The problem why you see us beg is because they don’t give us royalties,” she said. “We just work and toil so hard, and then that peanut, that money you gave us on board to come and shoot for you, is the only thing we get.”
It is a system that Patience Ozokwor believes stands in sharp contrast to what exists in Hollywood and other thriving film industries around the world. She pointed out that even entry-level actors in developed countries continue to earn from their work for the rest of their lives through residual payments, and those earnings do not stop when the actor passes away.
“Go and look at the smallest actors in developed countries. Every work they do fetches them money every day of their lives,” she said. “Even when they are gone, their families still live on that. We, we are still working hard.”
The financial gap she describes is not new, but it rarely gets addressed this plainly by someone of her stature.
Ozokwor has appeared in hundreds of productions across several decades, making her one of the most recognizable faces in African cinema. That she would speak this honestly about the industry’s structural failures says something about how serious the problem has become.
Without a royalty system in place, many Nollywood actors have turned to YouTube as their best available alternative, using the platform to build audiences and generate income directly from their content.
“That’s why everyone is running to YouTube,” Patience Ozokwor said.
Her comments add to a growing conversation among industry stakeholders about fair compensation in Nollywood, a conversation that continues to find its urgency in the very real struggles of the people who built the industry.
