Nollywood pays respect as Amaka Igwe passes on

On Monday night, Nigerian film-maker and Nollywood icon, Amaka Igwe died in an Enugu hospital. She was 51 years old at the time of her death. She was doing pre-production preparations for a new Igbo soap opera in Enugu when she suffered an asthma attack and was immediately rushed to the hospital. She finally passed on after several interventions to resuscitate her failed.  She was in the company of her husband when she died.


Mrs Igwe is survived by her husband of 21 years, Charles Igwe, three children, an aged mother, siblings and a large extended family. Before her death, Amaka Igwe (nee Isaac-Ene) was an accomplished writer, producer, director, entrepreneur and teacher. Her numerous works are deemed classics, and are models which other producers create their works after.

Though she had been producing for some time, her genius was first discovered when she wrote and produced the award-winning TV soap opera 'Checkmate' and it’s off-shoot 'Fuji House of Commotion'. Igwe was also well invested in the media, she was the founder of BoBTV Expo, the founder and CEO of Top Radio 90.9FM, Amaka Igwe Studios, and the newly-launched Q Entertainment Networks. She also produced RattleSnake and Violated, two of the best-selling Nollywood movie of all time.

Amaka Igwe studied Education and Religion at the University of Ife (Now Obafemi Awolowo University). She had a Master's Degree from the University of Ibadan. She had her early education at All Saints School (Now Trans Ekulu Primary School), Girls High School Awkunanaw, Enugu and Idia College, Benin. She was also honoured as Member of the Federal Republic (MFR)

John Njamah has been a God-son to Igwe. His first work was in Checkmate, and later Fuji house of commotion both Igwe’s production. He continued to work with her on other productions till her death. The actor cum producer was devastated by the loss, he said about her, “words are not enough to say goodbye to this awesome woman that carved my yesterday and defined my today as a film maker. She helped shape the Nigerian big screens. Millions were enlightened by her works.”

Many more movie makers and practitioners continue to say kind words about Igwe. Saidi Balogun says about her, “She is one of the few iconic figures The Movie Ambassadors of Nigeria look up to and try to tap from her wealth of experience. We received the sad news of her death with shock amidst tears. On personal achievement as a thespian she is a doyen but most importantly is her quest to have a unified movie industry. We will always remember u and pass this on to generations to come.”