Onome Amuge

The African Business Coalition for Health is set to host a roundtable at Lagos’s Oriental Hotel on September 18, during the Africa Film Finance Forum, to examine how Africa’s $20 billion film economy could act as a conduit for mobilising private capital into the continent’s underfunded healthcare systems

The session, titled “Health on the Big Screen: From Film Reel to Real Impact”, reflects a growing shift in business thinking that the continent’s cultural industries, once viewed primarily as vehicles of entertainment, can be harnessed to mobilise private capital for social development.

Healthcare across Africa remains burdened by underfunding, weak infrastructure and a growing double load of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Governments have struggled to close the gap with limited budgets, while international donor aid has proven insufficient. Private capital is widely acknowledged as essential to addressing these gaps, but investors have often been reluctant to engage. The sector is perceived as high risk, marked by regulatory complexity, uncertain returns and long payback horizons. It is precisely this narrative challenge that ABCHealth hopes to address. By linking healthcare investment opportunities with storytelling, advocates argue, perceptions can be reframed, with stories placing data in human context and converting abstract need into a case for innovation and opportunity.

Few industries on the continent offer the reach and resonance of Nollywood. Nigeria’s film industry produces thousands of titles each year, contributing an estimated 5 per cent to GDP and employing millions, with influence stretching far beyond national borders, amplified by global streaming platforms and mobile penetration. With millions of young Africans consuming video content daily, films are seen as uniquely positioned to influence behaviour, shape perceptions and build empathy. 

Advocates believe the same tools that drive consumer choices can also alter investor sentiment. The idea that storytelling can drive health outcomes is not without precedent. South Africa’s Soul City, launched in the 1990s, reached more than 70 per cent of the national population and is credited with boosting condom use and HIV testing. MTV’s Shuga, produced across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, has influenced millions of young viewers on issues ranging from HIV prevention to mental health. Elsewhere, productions such as Zimbabwe’s Neria, Kenya’s Veve and Burkina Faso’s Talia’s Journey have blended entertainment with advocacy, often backed by development agencies. These examples highlight storytelling’s potential to shift behaviours, raise awareness and strengthen accountability, but what is new about the Lagos roundtable is its ambition to move beyond awareness to capital mobilisation.

The event comes at a time of growing momentum in Africa’s film economy. The industry is forecast to surpass $20 billion  in valuation, driven by Nollywood’s global reach and rising demand for African content. 

Thus, investors are taking notice. The African Export-Import Bank has launched a $1 billion Africa Film Fund, while the International Finance Corporation and the African Development Bank have established financing structures and training programmes to build capacity across the sector. Such moves are gradually reshaping perceptions of Africa’s creative economy, long viewed as too risky or informal to attract significant capital. 

For ABCHealth, led by chief executive Mories Atoki, this shift offers an opportunity to connect two undercapitalised sectors. “We are not only telling stories; we are building frameworks for action. The private sector has both the responsibility and the opportunity to shape the future of healthcare in Africa,” she said.

The Lagos session is designed to demonstrate how storytelling can raise investment urgency around healthcare, showcase narratives that have successfully shifted investor perspectives, examine institutional barriers to capital access for both film and health projects, and explore financing models and business cases capable of attracting private capital. Participants will include C-suite executives, healthcare innovators, filmmakers, financiers, regulators and journalists, with the aim of encouraging cross-sector partnerships that move beyond advocacy to concrete investment.

Both healthcare and creative industries face similar obstacles when seeking capital. For healthcare, systemic risks, weak insurance coverage and regulatory uncertainty weigh heavily. For film, collateral structures are underdeveloped and intellectual property rights fragile, limiting bankability. 

The roundtable is expected to explore blended finance structures, impact investment strategies and co-investment models, with advocates suggesting that tying film projects to measurable health outcomes, such as higher immunisation rates or reduced maternal mortality, could provide investors with the metrics that de-risk capital and appeal to ESG-focused funds.