Ruth Kadiri, the Nollywood actress, has opened up on why she decided to upload her movies on YouTube.
Kadiri, in an interview with BBC Pidgin, said she began uploading her films on YouTube as she sought a platform where she could freely express herself and tell her stories.
She recalled how she was discouraged while starting out but decided to give it a try.
“I have been a producer for a long time but there are too many rules and regulations during production,” she said.
“So I called my team and told them that I want an opportunity to express myself. For instance, if I see something online I want to learn it and after learning, I want to upload it somewhere.
“When I travelled to give birth, I was bored and started watching a lot of musical videos and noticed that some people put their films on YouTube.
“I told myself that I’ll come back to try it. Some people discouraged me and told me that there is no money in it. But because I needed a platform to express myself and tell my stories, I decided to try it.
“I told my team that we should shoot and if the film is not good enough, we will learn and use it as a learning process.
Kadiri also stated that she is not bothered about competition in the YouTube space, emphasising on the abundant opportunities available on the platform.
“Personally I don’t worry about competition and I feel like as filmmakers, we are at the fore front and we hustle.
“If you remove YouTube from the industry, apart from filmmakers and content creators, people will go hungry.
“YouTube is an opportunity for a lot of filmmakers to make money and that’s what is happening now. Because YouTube is what is feeding people now.”
Kadiri currently has two million subscribers on YouTube.
