African Pooling Institute (API) has urged the Federal Government and the private sector to invest in the digital economy to leverage youths’ talents and diversify the economy.
API Executive Director, Prof. Bell Ihua said this in Abuja while presenting a study titled, ‘Skit economy: An assessment of digital content creators in Nigeria.’
According to Ihua, content creators who were interviewed during the survey frowned at inadequate support from the government and warned that the proposed regulation of social media would hamper the growth and development of the sector.
He said that digital content creators spread all over the nation identified excessive taxes on social media platforms, poor funding, high cost of production, lack of basic equipment, poor electricity supply as key concerns and bottlenecks hindering the growth and development of the comedy skit sector in Nigeria.
Ihua noted that the increasing production of comedy skits was mainly driven by the sheer abundance of creative talents existing in the country, as well as the availability of technology and social media platforms, which he said have now become, in some ways, a leveler, cutting out the middlemen to provide direct access of artistes to a global audience of viewers
In the report, the views of Nigerians were sought regarding the rise of comedy skits, their viewership and who they considered the top skit comedians in the country.
The results and findings showed that Samuel Animashaun Perry aka Broda Shaggi was identified as the country’s No. 1 Skit Comedian and Digital Content Creator. This was followed by the Mark Angel Comedy team of Emmanuella Samuel, Mark Angel and Success Samuel with 26 per cent; Debo Adebayo aka Mr. Marcaroni with 15 per cent, Maryam Adedoyin Apaokagi aka Taaooma with 12 per cent and Nosa Afolabi aka Lasisi Elenu with 11 per cent.
According to the report, cumulatively, these top five Skit Comedians have a fan base of over 53 million followers on various social media platforms, adding that 65 percent of Nigerians consider Comedy Skits funny and entertaining, 20 per cent find them quite informative and 14 per cent use Skits as an elixir to rest and relax.
Also, 91 per cent of respondents believed that Comedy Skits are useful in creating awareness about social trends, 83 percent identified the role of Comedy Skits in correcting societal ills, while 90 percent acknowledge the potentials of Comedy Skits for employment generation in Nigeria.
