Mansa, a world streaming platform for culture-inspired content material, has debuted in Nigeria with a brand new vertical streaming characteristic designed for smartphone viewing.
With the brand new characteristic, customers in Nigeria can entry serialised dramas with no Digital Personal Community (VPN), with episodes that run between 60 and 120 seconds and are structured round cliffhangers that immediate viewers to proceed watching.
Viewers can entry this characteristic inside the Mansa app and might uncover new dramas and rewatch favourites. Native studios or writers may also make cash from their manufacturing inside the app.
Nigeria’s leisure and media (E&M) business is projected to generate revenues of $4.9 billion in 2026, in accordance with the 2026 PwC Nigeria Financial Outlook. As world platforms compete for development past Western markets, Mansa is positioning itself to faucet into Nollywood’s manufacturing protection and the spending energy of native audiences.
“We’ve got all the time been shifting in the direction of Nigeria,” Nate Parker, cofounder of Mansa, instructed TechCabal in an announcement final week. “Nigeria is likely one of the most dynamic storytelling ecosystems on the earth. The depth of Nollywood, the dimensions of its viewers, and the worldwide diaspora related to Nigerian tradition make it central to any critical multicultural media technique.”
The vertical characteristic operates on a hybrid mannequin. Viewers utilizing the characteristic can watch a set variety of episodes totally free earlier than unlocking further episodes by buying bundled in-app cash. The pricing of every coin bundle is localised by area and structured throughout a number of tiers.
Whereas precise Naira costs might range as a consequence of platform charges and trade charges, the corporate says affordability is central to its African rollout technique. Funds in Nigeria are at present processed by means of Flutterwave, and the corporate says it’s in lively discussions with telecom operators to discover knowledge and billing partnerships that may allow seamless transactions for Nigerian customers.
Mansa says the income generated from coin purchases is shared straight with creators, with participation ranges relying on the construction of every undertaking. Slightly than creators solely counting on licencing charges, the corporate says it goals to align incentives so creators profit from sustained viewers engagement.
“Our objective is alignment. We would like creators to take part meaningfully within the upside whereas additionally constructing a sustainable platform,” Parker added.
The studio says mental property possession for dramas featured on the platform varies by the undertaking.
In lots of circumstances, creators retain mental property whereas granting Mansa distribution rights for outlined territories and time durations. In co-productions the place Mansa supplies financing, rights could also be shared. Creators keen on collaborating can submit serialised ideas by means of Mansa’s official submission portal.
Visually, Mansa’s vertical video format is carefully accustomed to and was popularised by social media platforms akin to TikTok or YouTube Shorts. Nevertheless, Mansa says its technique is totally different, as social platforms depend on algorithmic discovery and promoting income, whereas Mansa is positioned as studio-produced storytelling.
“The objective shouldn’t be virality,” Parker added. “So, visually it could really feel acquainted to audiences accustomed to vertical viewing, however strategically it operates extra like a streaming studio mannequin tailored for cell behaviour.”
The brand new characteristic comes as streaming firms globally experiment with short-form codecs to match altering consumption habits.
In Could 2025, Netflix introduced that it was testing a short-form video characteristic inside its app. Mansa’s differentiation lies in its cultural positioning and coin-based monetisation system for serialised short-form dramas slightly than video snippets.
Mansa’s vertical characteristic rollout debuts with The Heiress, The Baller & The Secret Society, a 27-episode romantic thriller, with plans to incorporate further originals all year long.
Based in 2021 by award-winning filmmakers David Oyelowo and Nate Parker, Mansa creates and distributes movie on its digital platform. The corporate raised $8 million in April 2023 and says this new vertical storytelling format is a long-term pillar of its studio and distribution technique.
“We see vertical storytelling as the following evolution of serialised leisure,” Parker concluded. “For Mansa, it isn’t separate from our broader mission. It’s a new working layer that permits multicultural storytelling to scale globally.”
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