The National President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Abubakar Yakubu, has pledged the guild’s support for the Pan-African Actors Roundtable and Awards (PAARA) to foster intra-African film collaborations and promote pan-African storytelling.
Yakubu gave the assurance at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja. The conference was organised by PAARA in collaboration with AGN and the Film Association of Malawi (FAMA).
Yakubu described the pan-African thespians initiative as an important step towards uniting African actors and giving the continent’s creative industry a common voice. “This is a very good initiative. We started this journey together with my predecessor.
“ It is to look into the future of the industry with the aim of uniting Africa to have a single voice in the creative industry, especially the performance,” he said.
He said AGN was fully committed to the initiative, which he described as an effort to secure a sustainable future for performers across Africa.
“We are 100 per cent in support of this initiative. We are together, and in every movement of PAARA, AGN will be there to celebrate the achievement,” Yakubu said.
He said the initiative had attracted performing arts organisations from several African countries, including South Africa, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Malawi, The Gambia, Mozambique and Cameroon.
Yakubu also welcomed Malawi’s decision to host the continental unveiling, saying the initiative would combine entrepreneurship, business and empowerment with efforts to unite African actors.
Earlier in his speech, Emeka Rollas, the immediate past president of AGN and founder of PAARA , said the initiative was conceived to address common challenges facing African actors and strengthen their professional representation.
Rollas said the body was designed to promote actors’ welfare, professional dignity, fair remuneration, intellectual property protection and access to international markets.
“Our ambition is to create a common continental table where these institutions can meet, exchange ideas and develop common positions on issues affecting actors.
“We also want to build partnerships and pursue opportunities that may be difficult for individual national organisations to achieve alone,” he said.
Rollas explained that PAARA would operate through four pillars: advocacy, training, marketplace and recognition, to strengthen professional development and create opportunities for actors.
“Through advocacy, we intend to promote policies that protect actors’ rights, strengthen professional standards, encourage fair remuneration, improve working conditions and advance the protection and monetisation of intellectual property.
“In training, we seek to support professional development, capacity building, knowledge exchange, leadership development and the transfer of skills across generations and national boundaries.
“Through marketplace, we want to connect actors and creative professionals to production opportunities, international markets, co-productions, distribution networks, investors, digital platforms and other commercial opportunities,” he said.
According to him, the body will champion the recognition of actors by celebrating excellence, professional contribution, leadership, cultural influence and the achievements of African actors whose work continues to shape the image of our continent.
Rollas, however, stressed that PAARA was not intended to compete with existing actors’ guilds and unions but to complement and strengthen their activities.
“Our ambition is to build a united, professionally empowered and globally competitive African acting community, where the actor is not merely celebrated for performance but recognised as a professional, an entrepreneur and a custodian of culture,” he said.
He traced the initiative’s origin to an engagement with the African Union Commission in 2018 and subsequent discussions involving creative professionals from more than 20 African countries in South Africa in 2025.
The former AGN president said the continental unveiling of PAARA would hold on Nov. 26 in Lilongwe, Malawi. He said the unveiling would take place during the Malawi Creative Economy and Investment Forum, scheduled for Nov. 25 to 27.
According to him, the forum will bring together stakeholders to discuss creative enterprise, investment, intellectual property protection, market access and international partnerships.
Rollas identified FAMA as the official host-country institutional partner, adding that its involvement would strengthen PAARA’s continental reach.
In her remarks, President of FAMA, Dorothy Kingston, said the partnership would strengthen relations between the Nigerian and Malawian film industries and create opportunities for their practitioners.
“We are here to strengthen the relationship between Malawi and Nigeria through a strategic partnership that will create opportunities for both film industries,” she said.
Kingston said the collaboration would promote joint film production, skills development, exchange programmes and investment.
According to her, such the platform will create opportunities for Malawian actors to participate in Nigerian film productions.
She urged Nigerian filmmakers to explore Malawi as a filming destination, citing its lakes, mountains and tourism infrastructure.
“Our ambition is to position Malawi as an active player in the African film industry. We do not want our industry to remain isolated.
“We want our stories, talent and production to reach wider African and international markets,” she said.
Kingston described Nigeria as an important partner, saying Malawi hoped to learn from its more established film industry through sustained collaboration.
She urged Nigerian filmmakers to partner with their Malawian counterparts, expressing FAMA’s readiness to support co-productions between both countries.
Also speaking, Chief Onyekachukwu Nzekwesili, Chief Executive Officer of Pine Leaf Estates, said the partnership provided an opportunity to connect businesses across Africa and with people in Malawi.
