Omoni Oboli Tells Financial Jennifer: When I made My first Film, We Didn’t Have Money to Pay School Fees

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‎Nollywood actress and movie producer, Omoni Oboli, has shared some of the struggles she encountered on the path towards producing her first ever movie saying that her family had to pour all of their resources into the movie and homeschool their three children for a year because they couldn’t afford to pay the fees.
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‎She made the revelation during a fireside chat with the Convener, FinTribe Finance Fair Conference, Jennifer Awirigwe, popularly known as Financial Jennifer at the 2026 edition of the event which held in Lagos at the weekend.
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‎Convener, FinTribe Finance Fair Conference 2026, Jennifer Awirigwe, in her introductory remark stated that the event was inspired by the need to breakdown stereotypes which limit women and provide knowledge which can inspire women to lead more intentional lives.
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‎Awirigwe explained that the choice of the 2026 theme “I CAN” speaks to the intentionality of the project adding that through the convergence she hopes women are inspired to believe in their little beginnings, encouraged to take up soace and inspired to grow through the stories of other women.
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‎”For many women, there is a belief that some things are beyond our reach and that is what I want us to break today. When it comes to things like owning property or taking opportunity, many feel they are not good enough while people they’re better than are doing it with confidence.
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‎”What if women gave themselves the opportunity to start small, to take up space and build something bigger than what they’ve always imagined. I’m not saying that there won’t be challenges, but at FinTribe , we are confident about what is possible when women have access to the right knowledge,” she said.
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‎Oboli, while responding to the question on the defining moment of her career where she decided to move from waiting for opportunities to creating them said that one of the challenges that inspired the decision to go into movie production was that as a script writer who gave her scripts freely to producers to get movie roles, she realised that the movie produced didn’t quite reflect the story she had imagined while writing.
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‎She explained that having left the industry for 10 years to nurture her new family, she thought getting acting roles would help bring her back into the career she had always loved but on her return, she realised that securing acting jobs was difficult.
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‎”I got married right after school (university). I could not come back to the film industry immediately. We relocated. It took 10 years for me to come back and when I came back. I was the new girl. Nobody remembered me.
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‎”By the time I came back, nobody knew me. So it was a lot of struggle. Then, there were a few established girls, and the industry kind of didn’t even need or want a new girl, so it was very tough. I had three little boys. You know, trying to go for auditions and do all of that. I tried to do other things, but the movies just kept calling to me because that’s actually my life.
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‎”To cut the long story short, I started writing scripts, and I would write the scripts and give them to producers and say, don’t pay me for acting. Don’t pay me for the scripts. Just give me a role. I just wanted to be there.
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‎”It took a few years, but then one day I woke up and I realized these stories that I’m writing, because I was still writing and giving to producers, they don’t quite look like what I had in my head when I was writing them.”
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‎This gap between the original images in her mind at the point of writing and the visual recreation when directed inspired her to go into directed her movies.
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‎According to her, the thought of directing a movie was scary at the time because Nollywood had only Amaka Igwe of blessed memory in the space and Stephanie had just directed her first film.
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‎To gain mastery of the craft, she said, she  went to New York to take a short course on digital film making at the New York Film Academy. But after gaining the knowledge, she didn’t have the money to fund a film project.
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‎”Nobody was willing to give a rookie director their film to direct. It wasn’t happening. It took me a long time to finally direct my first film because I realized I had to produce that film myself. So, what did I do? Four years after I went to film school, I was still talking about this film, I had written to a few brands and nobody was really biting. I said to myself, “I’m going to make this film.
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‎”So, I gathered all the money in the house. I’m literally saying my kids had to be homeschooled. It was a cute thing to say, oh, they’ve been homeschooled but we didn’t have money to pay school fees. I gathered all the money in the house and said, “I’m going to make my film”. So my kids were at home for a year because I just didn’t want to owe anyone. We already owed,” she said.
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‎Oboli, while acknowledging her husband’s support through that time, noted that her husband’s support made it easier for them as a family trying a new path.
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‎”I say my husband is the wind beneath my wings because I won’t be here today, if not for him. If he had said, ‘you cannot pack all the money in the house to make your first film.’ It wouldn’t have happened. But he said, if this is what’s going to make you happy. Let’s do it.
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‎”So, we took all the money in the house and we started this film. I started this film with not enough money to finish it. But I said, I’m done talking. I’m just going to start and God made it thing happen for me.”
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‎She stated that the movie project would later take her and her A-list crew to three states in Nigeria- Lagos, Delta and Ekiti, with God providing enough resources through partnerships to complete the project.
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‎While encouraging the audience to take the step of faith towards pursuing their God-given dreams and aspirations, she said that in her case, She believes God wanted her to take the first steps forward.
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‎”I believe that God wanted me to get to that point where I said, “I’m going to do this,” because many times in life we’re planning, and planning is cute, but there is something about planning that makes you feel like you’re doing something. It deceives you, so you feel like there’s progress. There’s no progress.
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‎”You’re thinking about this business. You’re talking about this business. You’re planning this business. You’re researching this business. Guess what’s not being done? The business is not being done.”
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‎According to her, people who win in life are the people who take action and learn along the way.
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‎Other speakers at the conference include, Nollywood trailblazer, Olufunke Akindele; actress, Bamike Olawunmi-Adenibuyan; Chief Executive Officer, NGX Regulations, Olufemi Shobanjo; and Coach Shola Adesakin, amongst others. The event had over 10,000 attendees on site and online.