Osuofia speaks on Yoruba filmmakers’ function in emergence of Nollywood

Veteran Nollywood actor Nkem Owoh, popularly often called Osuofia, has clarified that Yoruba filmmakers pioneered Nigeria’s home-video trade however didn’t begin Nollywood.

Owoh made the clarification throughout an look on Curiosity Made Me Ask, a present hosted by comic and content material creator Adebayo Abidemi, popularly often called Bae U.

The actor was responding to questions on his earlier feedback on the contributions of Yoruba and Igbo filmmakers to the event of Nollywood.

He dismissed claims that he had stated Yoruba individuals based Nollywood, explaining that the title didn’t exist when he and different filmmakers started producing motion pictures.

He stated the title Nollywood was adopted later after trade stakeholders met to debate concepts on the way to develop and model the Nigerian movie trade.

“First of all, you have given me this wrong accusation that I said, Yoruba started Nollywood. No. When we started the thing, there was no Nollywood as a name,” he stated.

However, Owoh credited Yoruba filmmakers, notably veteran filmmaker Hubert Ogunde and Adebayo Salami, popularly often called Oga Bello, for pioneering and popularising home-video productions in Nigeria.

He maintained that Yoruba filmmakers performed a major function within the early improvement of home-video leisure.

“The Yoruba did not start Nollywood. They started home video,” he added.

His clarification comes amid renewed debate over the contributions of Yoruba and Igbo filmmakers to the Nigerian movie trade.

In August 2026, late Nollywood actor Francis Duru had argued that Igbo entrepreneurs performed a serious function in constructing trendy Nollywood by the home-video increase of the Nineties and early 2000s.

The 1992 movie Living in Bondage, produced by Kenneth Nnebue, is extensively credited with serving to popularise the business home-video market that grew to become the inspiration of recent Nollywood.