Creative Nigerian tech startup, Albantsho, which offers a suite of easy-to-use screenwriting tools for African creators, has launched its latest feature tagged The Scriptwriter.
Currently available free of charge to users across Africa, The Scriptwriter ensures that screenwriters are able to create polished stories that meet formatting requirements of international standard. The platform rivals similar tools with its block-based script editor that has user-friendly interfaces.
Says Julie Ako (who co-founded the startup with Nikita Mokgware) in 2020: βThe creative aspect of screenwriting can be very mentally demanding, but that doesnβt mean professionals can afford to focus on that alone and shun widely accepted formatting standards. So it can be tricky to balance ticking creative boxes alongside properly formatting each story element,β
As African storytelling becomes more popular in Nigeria, across the African continent, and in the Diaspora, there is increased demand for creative tools in the African marketplace.
The 2023 Nollywood $1 million blockbuster, The Black Book, for example, racked up 5.6 million views on Netflix barely 48 hours after it launched on September 22 and was among the top 10 titles in 69 countries by the second week of its launch.
This growing global appeal of African films, in addition to their potential to deliver quick and impressive returns on investment, is transforming the industry into an attractive investable asset class.
Also in its sights for Q1 2024, Albantsho intends to introduce StoryBase, a script marketplace that lets screenwriters to put up their scripts for sale and allow producers bid or collaborate on them.