Funke Akindele Recounts Being Snubbed By Influencer Over ‘Everybody Loves Jenifa’ Promo

Filmmaker Funke Akindele has shared how an influencer turned down her request to help promote her 2024 film, Everybody Loves Jenifa.

Speaking at a panel session during the Creative Africa Nexus Weekend (CANEX WKND), Akindele said she hesitated before contacting the influencer, whose identity she did not disclose, but eventually went ahead and sent the message.

She said she waited for almost a week before getting a response, only to learn that the influencer’s team had rejected the partnership.

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“There was this influencer I reached out to, I sent a message to them that I would like to create content. One, two, three… for almost a week. And I did not want to send this message, this was during ‘Everybody Loves Jenifa’ but I tried and I was like let me send it, so I sent it,” she said.

“The person was like ‘I am sorry, my management does not want me to do this’. And I was like ‘I would pay’ but the person ignored me. Then months after, I read that I blocked somebody because of this.”

Akindele’s run at the box office has continued to set new benchmarks. Her 2023 film, Battle On Buka Street, became Nollywood’s biggest earner at the time with N640 million.

She broke new ground in January 2024 when A Tribe Called Judah became the first Nollywood film to cross N1 billion at the box office.

Later that year, Everybody Loves Jenifa went further, emerging as the highest-grossing film ever in West Africa with N1.88 billion.

Her 2025 release, Behind The Scenes, went past the N2 billion mark, setting a new record for African cinema.