Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan says he has invested more than ₦8 billion of his personal funds in the KAP Film Village and Resort in Oyo State but is struggling to keep the facility running because of inadequate electricity supply.
Afolayan made the disclosure in an interview with former Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun on the Nidacity podcast, released on Tuesday, 8 September 2026. He said the facility has never had electricity from the public grid since its establishment and has had to rely heavily on diesel generators.
“We haven’t had electricity in KAP Village since the beginning. So we’ve been running on diesel,” Afolayan said, according to a report by PUNCH on 8 September.
He said the situation had become difficult to sustain, adding that he had previously considered closing the resort because of the rising cost of diesel.
The filmmaker said he had already invested about ₦200 million in green energy, but the system was not sufficient to power the entire facility.
The power problem comes despite an earlier commitment by the Oyo State Government. During the official unveiling of the KAP Film Village in Igbojaye on 12 April 2025, Governor Seyi Makinde said the state would provide a solar-hybrid mini-grid and extend a dedicated electricity line from Okaka, about 23 kilometres away, to the facility. He said the projects were expected to be completed within six months.
More than a year later, Afolayan says the electricity challenge remains unresolved.
The cost of self-generation has also risen sharply. In March 2026, Afolayan disclosed that KAP Village was spending about ₦11 million on diesel every four to five weeks despite having solar power. He said the business had sometimes resorted to buying diesel on credit because of the financial pressure.
The KAP Film Village was developed partly to address the logistical challenges Afolayan encountered while producing Aníkúlápó. He told PUNCH that cast and crew struggled to find accommodation during production, with actors including Sola Sobowale and Bimbo Ademoye bringing mattresses and other belongings from home. He subsequently built 100 rooms at the film village.
The facility was formally unveiled by Governor Makinde and then Minister of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy Hannatu Musawa on 12 April 2025. At the event, Makinde described the project as an important investment in Oyo’s tourism and creative economy.
The state has since moved on another part of its infrastructure commitment. In September 2026, the Oyo State Government said reconstruction of the 30-kilometre Okaka Junction–Otu–Igbojaiye–KAP Film Village road was ongoing, with completion scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
The film village has also become a training hub. In October 2025, KAP Film & Television Academy, in partnership with the Oyo State Government, graduated 165 young filmmakers selected from all 33 local government areas of the state after a 10-day filmmaking residency.
Afolayan’s appeal comes as infrastructure remains a major challenge for Nigeria’s creative economy. The State of Nigeria’s Creative Economy 2026 report by NECLive identified unreliable electricity and poor internet connectivity as the biggest obstacles to growth among surveyed creative professionals.
For Afolayan, the issue is now about keeping a major private investment viable.
“I believe so much in this country,” he said. “If we’ve managed to do that with our own funds, I think there should be some sort of support from government agencies.”
The KAP Film Village case highlights a wider problem for Nigeria’s creative sector: private investors can build the infrastructure, but without dependable public utilities, the cost of keeping those investments operational can become just as challenging as raising the money to build them.
