Kunle Afolayan, the Nigerian filmmaker, has appealed to the
federal government for support, revealing that he has invested over N8 billion
of his personal funds into his film village.
The award-winning director made the appeal during an
interview with Kemi Adeosun, former minister of finance, on the Nidacity
podcast, aired on Tuesday.
Afolayan said the absence of electricity at the KAP Film
Village and Resort, located in Oyo state, has made operations increasingly
difficult, forcing the resort to rely solely on diesel generators since its
inception.
He noted that the rising cost of fuel had become unsustainable.
The filmmaker disclosed that he had previously considered
shutting down the resort due to the financial strain, but a friend offered to
sell diesel to him on credit.
“I believe so much in this country. We haven’t had
electricity in KAP Village since the beginning. So we’ve been running on
diesel,” he said.
“I did a post a few months ago that I cannot be like, we
can’t sustain this diesel thing. We’re going to close the resort, but then
there is another friend who said I will sell diesel to you on credit and I’m
like, it’s still not sustainable.”
Afolayan said he is now exploring alternative energy
sources, noting that about N200 million had been invested in green energy,
although it was not enough to power the entire resort.
“So right now we’re talking to a lot of people to try and
see how to do green energy. We did one last year, which cost about N200
million, but it’s not enough to power the entire resort,” he said.
Afolayan expressed frustration that similar or smaller
projects had received government grants, while his larger investment had gone
unsupported
“And if we’ve managed to do that, I think there should be
some sort of support, like from government agencies,” he said.
“I know people are not even doing one quarter of what we’re
doing, and they get a lot of grants from government.”
This is not the first time Afolayan has raised concerns
about operational costs. In March, he lamented that the resort spends
approximately N11 million on diesel every four to five weeks, despite having
some solar power installed.
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