Lilian Olubi: Nollywood’s Growth Requires Structure Across the Entire Value Chain

When Lilian Olubi describes the moment Osamede came to her, she speaks of visions and divine inspiration. But when she explains how she brought that vision to life, her language shifts to budgets, investor relations, and structured fundraising. 

It’s this unique duality, spiritual storyteller and seasoned financial executive, that makes Olubi one of Nollywood’s most intriguing new voices.

Her debut feature Osamede, which premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Market and is set to be  screened at the 2025  Silicon Valley African Film Festival, represents more than just another Nollywood production. It’s a calculated bet on African mythology, filmed entirely in the Edo language, that cost nearly ₦400 million to bring to life.

In an exclusive interview with The Nollywood Reporter, Olubi opens up about her transition from capital markets to cinema, the challenges of financing African stories, and why she believes the key to Nollywood’s future lies in better structure and authentic storytelling.

The Banker Who Became a Storyteller

Olubi’s path to filmmaking began in the most unlikely place: a moment of worship during what she describes as “a very tough season” of her life in 2019. “It came to me literally in what felt like a vision,” she recalls, settling into her chair with the measured confidence of someone accustomed to boardroom presentations. “It had the semblance of the biblical character Queen Esther.”

But visions, however compelling, don’t fund films. This is where Olubi’s decades in capital markets proved invaluable. “My entire career was essentially fundraising, both in the secondary and primary capital markets,” she explains. “I understood how you relate with investors, what investors are looking for, how you approach them, and all of those things in the deal room.”

The transition wasn’t just about transferring skills; it was about applying the same rigorous approach to a completely different industry. “At the end of the day, it’s sort of the same principles,” she notes. “So it was really about approaching it across the whole value chain: the way I selected the people I was working with, accountability, the format, how everything happened, the project management of the entire process.”

From Vision to Stage to Screen

Before Osamede became a film, it was a stage play that sold out several shows, sponsored by major Nigerian institutions including MTN Foundation, First Bank, and Zenith Bank. The theatrical success provided both proof of concept and a launching pad for bigger ambitions.

“As we went along with the play, improving it in each iteration, what became very obvious was that we were telling a story with global appeal,” Olubi reflects. The constraints of theatre, however, couldn’t contain her vision. “The stage has a constraint. First of all, how many people can fill up a room? I wanted the world to see it.”

Set in 1897 during the British colonial invasion of the Benin Kingdom, Osamede follows a young orphan who discovers she’s the chosen protector of the sacred Aruosa stone, awakening superhuman powers through this connection to Benin mythology. It’s a story that weaves together universal themes of heroism with specifically African cultural touchstones.

“We were talking about something very important in terms of the significance of that historic landmark—the British invasion,” Olubi explains. “And I wanted the world to see it.”

The Challenge of Being New

Despite her extensive business background, Olubi faced the inevitable skepticism that greets career changers. “The most obvious challenge was the fact that I was a newbie,” she admits. “This was me coming out with a first feature. The people I was meeting knew me in finance. And, of course, there was that question of: did I have the experience? What experience did I have in film?”

Her strategy was to leverage what she did have, a compelling vision and a proven track record of execution. “In the process of pitching, coming with a compelling vision of where I wanted this to go and the team I had assembled, I was able to leverage my track record in finance. We used all of that to convince people who trusted that I could replicate that success in this space.”

The success of the stage play provided crucial credibility. “It helped that I had done the stage play, which had some success, and so I could leverage that as a trajectory toward the intended scale.”

Budget Overruns and Honest Communication

The transition from stage to screen brought challenges that tested even Olubi’s extensive business experience. Initially budgeted at ₦290 million, the project eventually climbed to nearly ₦400 million—almost doubling its original cost. For many producers, such an overrun would spell disaster. For Olubi, it became a masterclass in crisis management.

“We were in the thick of inflationary pressure,” she explains, breaking down the factors that drove costs skyward. “Right at the time when there was high inflation, and it was rising quickly, we made a budget. But as we were budgeting, prices were literally galloping and changing from the time we approached investors to when we actually started.”

Additional challenges emerged during production. Filming outside Lagos presented unforeseen costs, while security concerns required enhanced protection that hadn’t been factored into the original budget. “We also faced some security challenges on the way, which made us realize we needed to intensify security. All of these brought additional costs that we hadn’t preempted.”

How do you tell investors that your film now costs nearly twice what you promised? For Olubi, the answer lay in the fundamentals of investor communication she’d honed over decades in finance.

“Even before we came back from the shoot, I had already sent a message,” she says. “I have a routine of investor updates, which I send periodically to all the investors with the status of things. So I was quick to let them know what had happened and also explain the implications.”

Her approach worked. Rather than losing confidence, investors appreciated the transparency. “At the end of the day, investors appreciate communication. They appreciate information. And I think they could see the clear reasons for the upheavals—we gave them the facts.”

Cultural Authenticity in a Global Market

One of the boldest decisions in Osamede was director James Omokwe’s choice to film entirely in the Edo language. For a project with global aspirations, it was a risky move that initially concerned investors.

“When we pitched to investors, it was a major concern,” Olubi acknowledges. “What I wanted was exactly what you’ve asked: something very local, very historical, but also very global and futuristic. It was a hard mix.”

Her vision was ambitious—she compared the project to Game of Thrones and Black Panther in her pitch deck, wanting “that global oomph, but without losing its cultural core.”

The decision to maintain the Edo language proved prescient. “What I’ve found is that the world actually wants authenticity,” she reflects. “We would have done ourselves a disservice if we’d tried to ‘fit in’ by diluting it. And if you look at audience behavior today, it’s shifting. Look at the Korean films—the world is watching them in Korean, with subtitles, and loving them.”

The Identity Question

Among the film’s themes of power, leadership, and cultural pride, Olubi gravitates toward identity as the most personal resonance. “If I were to pick one, I think it would be the issue of identity,” she says. “The vision that I have for this film is really the restitution of the African identity, restoring our glory as Africans.”

Her superhero analogy is telling: “Even if you have to compare to Superman—you have to know that you’re a superhero to be a superhero. The only thing that will stop you is the consciousness of not knowing. But when you know, that’s power, you’re already a superhero.”

This perspective extends beyond the film to her broader vision for African storytelling. “As Africans, we have this superpower, and we need to know what that superpower is. That’s the solution to our problems—it is in us.”

Restructuring Nollywood’s Financial Foundation

Olubi’s dual perspective as financier and filmmaker gives her unique insight into Nollywood’s structural challenges. Her diagnosis is comprehensive: the industry needs “structure across the entire value chain, not just film production itself.”

“The value chain of film involves storytelling, fundraising, distribution, and monetization. Across all of these, we need clearer structure. Especially in finance,” she explains.

The solution, she argues, starts with data. “The industry needs funding. It needs institutional funding and structural funding. But the process of raising funds requires a method. That approach requires data. Investors want to be able to price the risk. They want to benchmark performance.”

Her vision extends beyond individual projects to systemic change. “We need data sets across different types of films, different kinds of investments. That way, investors can say: ‘This type of film has historically performed like this, while this other type has returned like that.’ It helps them evaluate risk properly.”

Gold Lilies: Beyond Production

Through her company Gold Lilies, Olubi envisions a broader role than traditional production. “I’m an investment banker and filmmaker now, and the two worlds have to collide,” she says.

The company is positioned as “this investment advisory firm that supports the industry through the whole gamut and value chain—fundraising, project management, investor relations, business coaching, and all the many elements that I feel the industry needs.”

Her ultimate goal is ambitious: “I’m also hoping, of course, at some point, we’ll be able to manage funds that we can use to support the industry. And I have big ideas and big dreams of what I want the company to do in helping to translate this beautiful, important industry into tangible, viable impact for the continent.”

Local Investment, Global Reach

On the question of funding sources, Olubi advocates for a home-first approach. “It’s always better when change starts from within. It’s great to have global reach, but it’s better when you can prove local interest. Even foreign investors want to see that your locals value what you’re doing.”

Her reasoning goes beyond sentiment to economic logic: “If you only bring in external funding, what does that mean for your local industry? You don’t want all the money to leave and not circulate within the system you’re trying to grow.”

Legacy and Learning

When pressed about the legacy she hopes Osamede will leave, Olubi’s answer reveals both ambition and pragmatism. “I’m hoping that this film will give a template of how you can have impact and viability. You can do a socially impactful movie that can still be profitable for its investors.”

The film’s economic impact extends beyond investor returns. “If you see the huge impact that we made just filming in Edo State—the amount of development, the job opportunities that happened just in that community by our being there—then you can think about the extensions of what you can do with a movie like this in rebuilding the image of your nation, your country, and your continent.”

Personal Transformation

Perhaps the most revealing moment in our conversation comes when Olubi reflects on what filmmaking taught her that finance hadn’t. After a long pause, she settles on a simple phrase: “To do it afraid.”

“To have in this artistic world, just an idea that you create to life – as opposed to your typical financial product – it’s this journey of just trust,” she explains. “It’s really just the extent of creativity that we all have, in our God-likeness. It’s really discovering that innate gift of creativity, bringing something from idea into reality in this format.”

The Road Ahead

As Osamede continues its festival run and prepares for wider release, Olubi remains focused on the commercial metrics that will determine the film’s ultimate success. Her pitch deck promised a specific route: festival runs, theatrical release, then streaming. So far, the plan is unfolding as envisioned.

“Even though the end goal was and still is streaming, I wanted us to go through the process: festival runs, theatre release, and then streaming. And thankfully, this is playing out the way I dreamed it.”

For an industry often criticized for its informal structures and limited commercial returns, Olubi represents a new model: one that doesn’t compromise artistic vision for financial viability but rather uses rigorous business principles to enable more ambitious storytelling. 

Whether Osamede succeeds commercially will determine if her approach becomes a template for others to follow.

In the meantime, she continues building Gold Lilies as a bridge between the creative and financial worlds, convinced that African stories need better infrastructure to reach their global potential. “We’re positioned in that way to do advisory for the sector,” she says, her tone carrying the confidence of someone who has already proven that visions, with proper structure and execution, can indeed become reality.