Veteran Nollywood actor, Nkem Owoh, has clarified his position on the origin of Nigeria’s film industry, saying Yoruba filmmakers pioneered home-video productions but did not establish Nollywood.
Owoh made the clarification during an appearance on Curiosity Made Me Ask, a programme hosted by comedian and content creator Adebayo Abidemi, popularly known as Bae U. The interview was published on the host’s YouTube channel on Saturday.
During the interview, the actor was asked to respond to an alleged claim that Yoruba people, rather than the Igbo, started Nollywood.
However, Owoh rejected the interpretation, explaining that the name Nollywood was not in existence when Nigerian filmmakers began producing movies.
According to him, filmmakers from different backgrounds initially came together to develop the industry before eventually agreeing on the name Nollywood.
He explained that Yoruba filmmakers played an important role in popularising home-video productions in Nigeria, particularly through the contributions of veteran filmmakers such as Hubert Ogunde and Adebayo.
Owoh described Ogunde and Adebayo as influential figures whose productions attracted his admiration, adding that their contributions to the development of Nigerian cinema should not be overlooked.
He further stressed that Ogunde was a Yoruba filmmaker and maintained that Yoruba practitioners were already prominent in the industry before the emergence of the Nollywood name.
“The Yoruba did not start Nollywood. They started home video,” the actor clarified.
His comments come amid an ongoing debate over the contributions of different ethnic groups to the development of Nigeria’s entertainment industry.
In August 2026, late actor Francis Duru argued that Igbo entrepreneurs played a major role in building modern Nollywood through the home-video boom of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Duru also suggested that Yoruba filmmakers had strengthened their influence in the industry through better organisation and the promotion of their cultural identity.
The debate highlights the different phases of Nigerian cinema, particularly the distinction between the early development of indigenous film productions and the emergence of modern Nollywood.
One of the major turning points in the industry’s growth was the release of Kenneth Nnebue’s 1992 film, Living in Bondage, which is widely regarded as a landmark production in the expansion of Nigeria’s home-video industry.
Owoh’s clarification therefore draws a distinction between the early contributions of Yoruba filmmakers to home-video productions and the later emergence of Nollywood as an organised film industry.
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