A Nigerian digital monetisation expert, Ufuoma Okonoko, has identified the African-American consumer market as a major opportunity for Nigeria to earn billions of dollars from its creative industry through film, music, fashion and other cultural products.
Okonoko, a Nollywood actress and producer popularly known as Angel Ufuoma, said strategic digital distribution and marketing could turn the global popularity of Nigerian entertainment into a major source of foreign exchange.
She spoke while explaining the concept behind Blaze Channel, a United States-based digital monetisation platform designed to distribute Nigerian films and create international markets for products from the country's creative industry.
According to her, the platform seeks to address the difficulty Nigerian filmmakers face in earning revenue from their productions while using Nollywood and Afrobeats to attract international consumers to other Nigerian products.
“Nollywood filmmakers produce great films, but they find it very difficult to monetise them. We created Blaze Channel as a digital monetisation platform in the USA, not only to stream and monetise the movies, but more importantly to monetise Nigerian Creative Industry products,” she said.
Okonoko said the strategy involved using films and music to attract overseas audiences before introducing them to Nigerian fashion, food, publishing, pharmaceutical products, artificial intelligence solutions, arts and crafts.
She added that the approach could also promote tourism and attract foreign direct investment into Nigeria.
The digital monetisation expert said the African-American market offered considerable commercial opportunities for Nigerian businesses because of its purchasing power.
“Wait until we truly unleash our monetisation potential of billions of dollars in the African-American community in the USA, where our ‘cousins’ already spend two trillion dollars annually as consumers in America,” she said.
Okonoko disclosed that she spent 10 years working with software engineers in the United States to develop Blaze Channel before its official launch in 2018.
The platform has since attracted more than 2,000 subscribers worldwide, according to the company, which plans to raise additional capital to acquire more Nollywood film distribution rights and expand its marketing activities.
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic World Digital Communications, Tony Abulu, expressed confidence in the initiative, saying he planned to introduce its concept to American filmmakers and businesses through various chambers of commerce in the United States.
Blaze Channel has also applied to the Creative Economy Development Fund, with the company hoping to secure financial support for its expansion and efforts to connect Nigerian creative businesses with international markets.
Beyond her business interests, Okonoko has featured in more than 40 Nollywood productions, including Spellbound, Superstar, Doctor Bello and American Japa.
The company also disclosed that a film titled Reincarnation – Dance of the Masquerade, featuring Hollywood and Nollywood actors, was in development for 2027.
The proposed expansion of Blaze Channel reflects efforts to turn Nigeria's entertainment industry's international popularity into commercial opportunities for other sectors. However, its projected economic benefits will depend on securing distribution rights, attracting sustained audiences, and converting international exposure into actual sales.
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