Kunle Afolayan says Nigerian filmmakers are crowding onto YouTube because of the naira–dollar rate, not because the platform has replaced cinema or the big streamers.

Speaking on the Builders Podcast, he described YouTube as the flexible option for people who cannot force a Netflix or Prime deal. Make the film, open a channel, hope the views come. It will not pay like the majors, he said. It will pay something, and it pays in dollars.

At about ₦1,400 to the dollar, he argued, a million views can look like $10,000 — a figure that feels like a win in local money. If the naira ever strengthened to ₦200 to the dollar, he said, the same views would look small and the rush would reverse.

The numbers are a sketch, not an audit. YouTube rates swing with advertisers, geography and how long people watch. A million views in Lagos do not mint the same cheque as a million in markets where ads cost more. Afolayan is describing a mood: weak naira makes dollar crumbs look like a meal.

That mood sits on top of an older fight. He has already said he is unimpressed by billion-naira box-office headlines if the producer cannot take a real share home. YouTube, in his telling, is the same instinct in another window — skip the gatekeepers, take hard currency, accept that the art is also a hedge against the exchange rate.

If the currency ever calms, his warning is that the hedge disappears and so does the crowd. Until then, Nollywood’s new cinema is a comment section and a monetise button.