Veteran Nollywood actor, Nkem Owoh, also known as Osuofia, has spoken out that the home-video industry in Nigeria was started by Yoruba filmmakers, not Nollywood.
Owoh made the statement during an interview on Curiosity Made Me Ask, a show presented by comedian and content producer Adebayo Abidemi, widely known as Bae U.
The actor was replying to enquiries about his past remarks on the contributions of Yoruba and Igbo filmmakers to the growth of Nollywood.
He denied ever saying that the Yoruba people started Nollywood, noting that the name didn’t exist when he and other directors started making films.
He said the word Nollywood was adopted later after players in the business met to brainstorm ideas on how to build and brand the Nigerian film industry.
First of all, you have wrongly accused me of saying that Yoruba started Nollywood. No. He said: “When we started this thing, there was no Nollywood as a name.
However, Owoh credited the pioneering and popularisation of home-video productions in Nigeria to Yoruba filmmakers, especially veteran filmmaker Hubert Ogunde and Adebayo Salami, widely known as Oga Bello.
He argued that Yoruba filmmakers were instrumental in the early development of home-video entertainment.
“The Yoruba didn’t invent Nollywood. “They started home video,” he added.
The clarification is coming on the heels of fresh discussion on the contributions of Yoruba and Igbo filmmakers to the Nigerian film industry.
In August 2026, late Nollywood actor Francis Duru had asserted that Igbo entrepreneurs had a very crucial part in the growth of contemporary Nollywood through the home-video boom of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Kenneth Nnebue's 1992 film, Living in Bondage, is often cited as having helped to popularise the commercial home-video market that was the bedrock of modern Nollywood.
Thanks for reading: Osuofia reflects about Yoruba filmmakers’ involvement in the creation of Nollywood