‘No more one-time payments’: Kanayo O. Kanayo demands lifetime streaming royalties for Nollywood stars

Veteran Nollywood actor Kanayo O. Kanayo has stirred up a conversation the industry has been quietly avoiding for years. 

The award-winning actor and lawyer recently proposed that the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) implement a policy mandating lifetime royalty payments for all Nigerian actors and actresses featured in films uploaded to streaming platforms. 

He also called for a dedicated agency to oversee and enforce compliance nationwide, arguing it would ensure performers earn from their craft long after the cameras stop rolling.

The timing of the proposal is telling. Stories of financial ruin among once-beloved Nigerian actors have become alarmingly common.

Just last month, veteran actor Abiodun Ayoyinka, widely known as Papa Ajasco, spoke openly about his financial struggles despite decades in the industry. 

Two years prior, Hanks Anuku made headlines with public pleas for financial assistance after falling on hard times post-Nollywood. 

Patience Ozokwor recently put it bluntly: "The reason why Nollywood actors and actresses are poor is that we don't get royalties for what we do, we only get paid for our appearance at the shoot." Her words, along with the others, show a consistent pattern of demand.

The proposal has drawn mixed reactions from industry figures. Writer-director Jadesola Osiberu responded with sarcasm, suggesting that if actors want royalties, perhaps they should also contribute to covering a producer's losses proportional to their screen time, a dig at the one-sided nature of the demand. 

Producer and actress Bolaji Ogunmola was more direct: if actors want backend earnings, they should negotiate equity stakes and invest in projects upfront rather than seek guaranteed payouts after the fact.

It's a fair challenge. The music industry comparison many have reached for doesn't quite hold up here. 

In more structured film industries, residuals are tied to carefully negotiated distribution contracts and enforced by unions, organisations built over decades with legal infrastructure and industry-wide buy-in. 

In Nollywood, platforms like Netflix typically pay producers a fixed licensing fee for exclusive rights, with no contractual obligation to trickle payments down to the cast. Without that structural foundation, a royalties mandate would require not just goodwill, but a complete renegotiation of how Nollywood finances, contracts, and distributes its content.

AGN President Emeka Rollas has previously acknowledged the gap, noting that Nigerian actors lack residuals and royalties that are "the major source of an actor's income" in more developed industries. 

The conversation Kanayo has sparked is necessary. However, at this time, the industry has neither the will nor the framework to act on it entirely.

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