The audiovisual industry in Francophone West Africa is at a turning point. For decades, it has existed in the shadow of an imposing neighbour: Nigeria, with Nollywood. On track to become the world’s largest film industry by volume, Nigeria produces more than 2,500 films a year. For a creator or entrepreneur in the Francophone audiovisual sector, this Anglophone neighbour is both a benchmark and a source of inspiration, but above all a rather uncomfortable mirror, because the gap is real. And for those seeking to understand the dynamics at play in the sector in order to position themselves, it deserves to be examined without complacency. That is precisely what the evolution of the audiovisual industry in Francophone West Africa reveals today.

A structural imbalance, but not an inevitability

Nigeria has a domestic market of more than 240 million people, a common language that facilitates nationwide distribution, and an entrepreneurial tradition that learned very early on to work around the lack of institutional financing to build an industry driven by the private sector.

The historical roots of the Francophone lag

The development of cinema in Francophone West Africa has remained largely dependent on external French financing. This had an undeniable impact on productions:

• Scripts that found little favour with West African audiences, which weakened the content of productions;
• Fragmented national markets, which limited the circulation of content.

This model produced works that were often artistically remarkable and award-winning at festivals, but poorly distributed, rarely seen, and economically fragile.

An underserved Francophone audience with strong potential

Paradoxically, this is where the opportunity lies. Several hundred million French speakers on the continent and in the diaspora consume very little content in which they can truly see themselves.

A new generation of creators is developing short, efficiently compressed formats specifically adapted to mobile viewing. These include YouTubers and directors of Ivorian, Cameroonian or Beninese web series.

This audience exists, it is connected, and it remains largely underserved by current productions.

Marodi TV: the Senegalese exception showing the way

There is, however, one Francophone player that demonstrated before the others that an autonomous and scalable business model was possible. Marodi TV was created in response to the absence of a platform allowing Africans in the diaspora to watch African content on catch-up.

Founded in 2012, Marodi TV built its model on digital before the major platforms had even turned their attention to the continent. The results speak for themselves.

With more than 7.1 million subscribers on YouTube and series such as Maîtresse d’un homme marié accumulating 87 million views, Marodi TV has proved that a Francophone Senegalese production can appeal far beyond its borders, including to the African diaspora and international audiences.

Moreover, although French-language dubbing is produced for international distribution and French-language subtitles are available on YouTube, Marodi TV prioritises production in local Senegalese languages. This brings the question of the legitimacy and promotion of African languages in international entertainment back to the forefront.

Marodi TV’s success rests on a business model that works, driven by digital advertising, broadcasting partnerships and a loyal and massive audience. That audience is loyal and massive because many Africans see themselves reflected in the content offered. Marodi TV is the exception that, precisely, shows other Francophone players that a path exists.

Concrete signs of the Francophone audiovisual sector taking shape

Film and series production in Francophone Africa, particularly in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, has taken off in recent years, thanks in part to partnerships with Netflix, Canal+, TV5 Monde and Amazon Prime. Canal+ has played a driving role by commissioning local series, helping to professionalise teams and create regular demand.

Marodi TV provides a concrete illustration of this process of industry structuring. In March 2024, Canal+ announced that it had acquired a stake in the Senegalese company, publicly praising its expertise in producing Francophone African content and its favourable production environment.

This type of investment — that is, a major international group backing a local player rather than producing everything in-house — is precisely the signal the sector had been waiting for: proof that Francophone African companies can attract private capital that helps structure the sector, rather than relying solely on institutional support.

Côte d’Ivoire, for its part, has reached several significant institutional milestones:

• In 2024, the government launched a Film Commission with the stated objective of attracting international productions;
• The public body dedicated to cinema was renamed Côte d’Ivoire Cinéma, with a mandate to structure the sector in collaboration with private-sector players, training institutions and international organisations.

In Benin, this structuring process is taking a directly legislative form. Following the adoption of Law No. 2026-01 of 3 February 2026, the country now has a legal framework governing the full range of screen industries, including interactive technological experiences and all related services. The challenge remains to attract the capital needed to transform this artistic potential into a genuine engine of economic growth.

Three priorities identified to strengthen the audiovisual industry in Francophone West Africa

Three major priorities emerge for supporting the development of the audiovisual industry in Francophone West Africa: strengthening training, diversifying financing and structuring the market.

These areas reflect both the sector’s historical weaknesses and its most urgent areas for action. For a creator or entrepreneur, each also represents a point of entry into the industry:

• Technical skills — editing, production and post-production — remain scarce and expensive to acquire locally. This creates an opening for anyone working in education or creative consulting.
• Beyond existing public funds — FOPICA in Senegal, FONSIC in Côte d’Ivoire and FDAC in Benin — private and blended financing mechanisms still need to be developed: co-productions, crowdfunding, branded content.
• Market structuring. Digital distribution, rights aggregation, access to platforms.

These are all weak links where new players can position themselves before the market consolidates.

Copying Nollywood would be a strategic mistake

Nollywood was built on a model of volume, speed and direct appeal to a mass audience, deliberately bypassing institutional channels. This model worked because it was based on a vast domestic market and an entrepreneurial culture very particular to Nigeria.

Replicating it as it stands in the Francophone region would be an analytical mistake.

The number of screens in Nigeria also represents an opportunity for neighbouring Francophone countries, which can screen their films there and generate additional revenue, with growing demand for dubbing services.

The real issue, therefore, is not to catch up with Nollywood, but to build, with the resources and strengths available, a Francophone audiovisual industry that can endure: differentiated, rooted in its cultural realities, and connected to continental and global distribution channels.