The Anioma region has become a significant node in Nigeria’s film industry, with Asaba emerging as a hub for what is sometimes referred to as the “Asaba-style” segment of Nollywood. The city’s relative quiet, its mosaic of village-scenes, river-front backgrounds and accessible locations made it a natural setting for producers from the early 2000s seeking lower-cost, high-volume shoots. Over time, this location advantage has merged with institutional support and infrastructure to give Anioma a more formal film-production identity. Asaba movies played a pivotal role in promoting YouTube home videos in Nigeria, and it dominates the YouTube market for Nollywood movies. In recognition of its film-production role, Asaba was designated a “Creative City of Film” by UNESCO in December 2023, acknowledging the city’s film-history and the large number of film-professionals based there. The implication is that Anioma is not simply a passive filming location but aspiring to become a creative-economy cluster: one where story-telling, technology, production-services and location-assets coalesce.
One of the most tangible manifestations of this shift is the development of a dedicated film-village and leisure-park complex; Maryam Babangida Leisure Park, Asaba. The facility is sited in Ugbolu/Anwai Road (Asaba) and is conceived both as a production base for filmmakers and a destination for recreation and tourism. The project is designed to bring together studios, post-production facilities, location sets, and leisure amenities. The complex combines film-village infrastructure (studios, sets, creative spaces) with leisure amenities: water-parks, man-made lake, waterslides, zoo section, restaurants and event halls. Because of these factors, the entertainment sector in Anioma has several strategic advantages: a legacy of film-making practice, existing skilled crew and actor networks, physical locations that serve filming needs, and growing formal infrastructure. At the same time, it offers significant potential for economic growth: job-creation in production, hospitality and allied services; revenue from location-fees, studio rental and tourism; and branding opportunities for the Anioma region as a creative hub.
The presence of these infrastructures in Anioma supports the entertainment-sector by reducing logistic/time costs for film production; offering leisure-services to the production crews (hotels, resting-spaces, location-diversity); promoting tourism and local-consumer entertainment (families and visitors) which creates demand and foot-traffic (merchandise, hospitality, transport). Since many film-crew, actors, extras, props-handlers, and local service-providers operate in or around Asaba, there is a local “ecosystem” of creative-jobs that contributes to economic viability: local hotels accommodate crews, transport operators ferry the cast, wardrobe/costume rental businesses serve shoots, and local areas earn location-fees. Additionally, this supports training and creative-skills development, so that young people in Anioma can access editing-rooms, studio-spaces, and on-site production jobs rather than needing to relocate elsewhere in Nigeria or abroad, thereby keeping capital flow and investment within the region.
Anioma’s identity in film has become a brand: “Nollywood in Asaba” is a phrase often used by industry people.