By Our Reporter
Nollywood’s long-running struggle to convert its growing global popularity into wider audiences and stronger commercial returns is getting a technology-driven boost, as PlotWeaver and the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) move to deploy artificial intelligence to localise Nigerian films for audiences across different languages and markets.
The collaboration, backed by a memorandum of understanding valued at approximately $2 million, is designed to address one of the major barriers limiting the international distribution of African film: the cost and complexity of translating and dubbing content for multiple markets.
PlotWeaver’s localisation technology can translate films into multiple languages while preserving the voices, performances and emotional delivery of original actors, alongside lip-sync, subtitles and human quality assurance.
For Nigerian producers and rights holders, this could make it possible for a single production to reach audiences across Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other African markets without recreating the traditional dubbing process separately for every language.
“Nollywood already knows how to create stories that travel culturally. Our challenge is making sure language does not stop those stories from travelling commercially,” said Wole Fagbohun, Founder and CEO of PlotWeaver.
“A film made in Lagos should be able to speak to audiences in Brazil, France, Saudi Arabia or other parts of Africa without losing the identity and performance that made the original production powerful.”
PlotWeaver believes AI localisation could significantly change the economics of international distribution for African film by reducing localisation costs, shortening delivery timelines and allowing producers to test more international markets.
The company is also developing localisation infrastructure for broadcasters, sports organisations, digital media businesses and other rights holders.
“The opportunity is bigger than dubbing,” Fagbohun added. “It is about turning Nigerian intellectual property into globally accessible intellectual property and giving African creators a larger addressable market”, he stated.
For Nollywood, which has built a powerful cultural footprint through platforms such as streaming services and diaspora audiences, the initiative could mark a shift from simply exporting Nigerian stories to actively adapting them for global consumption.
PlotWeaver develops multilingual voice AI, dubbing, speech translation and localisation technology, with a particular focus on African and underserved languages.