PlotWeaver and the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) have signed a $2 million memorandum of understanding to drive Nollywood’s expansion through AI-powered dubbing, voice preservation, and multilingual localisation.
The deal is aimed at tackling a key barrier to the global distribution of African films: the high cost and complexity of translating content for international audiences.
Under the agreement, PlotWeaver will deploy AI technology to localise Nigerian films into multiple languages while preserving the original actors’ voices.
In a statement, the company explained that the goal is to make Nollywood titles more accessible across new markets without losing cultural authenticity.
The company said its localisation technology can translate films into multiple languages while preserving the voices, performances and emotional delivery of original actors, alongside lip-sync, subtitles and human quality assurance.
For Nigerian producers and rights holders, this could make it possible for a single production to reach audiences across Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other African markets without recreating the traditional dubbing process separately for every language.
“Nollywood already knows how to create stories that travel culturally. Our challenge is making sure language does not stop those stories from travelling commercially,” said Wole Fagbohun, Founder and CEO of PlotWeaver.
He said: “A film made in Lagos should be able to speak to audiences in Brazil, France, Saudi Arabia or other parts of Africa without losing the identity and performance that made the original production powerful.”
According to him, PlotWeaver believes AI localisation could significantly change the economics of international distribution for African film by reducing localisation costs, shortening delivery timelines and allowing producers to test more international markets.
He hinted that he company is also developing localisation infrastructure for broadcasters, sports organisations, digital media businesses and other rights holders.
He added: “The opportunity is bigger than dubbing,” Fagbohun added. “It is about turning Nigerian intellectual property into globally accessible intellectual property and giving African creators a larger addressable market.”
PlotWeaver develops multilingual voice AI, dubbing, speech translation and localisation technology, with a particular focus on African and underserved languages.