Idris Elba Has Bold Plans To Invest In Africa, Including A ‘Smart Eco-City’ And Now A Film Studio

Idris Elba has several business moves in the works to advance Africa.

As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the English actor has roots that trace back to Sierra Leone, his father’s native country. Elba was also granted citizenship there after he made a visit in 2019, BBC reports. At the time, he said the moment was “ the biggest honour I could get from my country.”

“I’m no stranger to Africa: I’ve been in Africa, I’ve made films in Africa, I’ve championed Africa,” Elba explained to BBC. “But Sierra Leone, it’s a very different feeling because it’s my parent’s home. The welcome has been incredible, and I’ve plugged straight into that energy that I think Sierra Leone is rising with. The son of the soil is coming back to fertilise the soil.”

Elba also announced plans to invest in the area and surrounding lands with his eyes set on its tourism and entertainment.

“America or England cannot house my ambition. Africa can house my ambition, I can create another Disney here [and] I can’t do that in America,” he explained.

In March 2024, he also unveiled aspirations to build a “smart eco-city” on Sherbro Island near the southwestern coast of Sierra Leone.

“At some junction, my business partner Siaka Stevens, the grandson of the former president, said, ‘Look, someone needs to cultivate Sherbro Island for tourism.’ That was seven years ago,” Elba explained to CNN. “Where we are now is that we partnered with the government to figure out a plan of how we can bring in tourism. Well, it started as tourism—now we’re building a smart, eco-dynamic city.”

In his latest move, it appears Elba is scaling his ambition to other parts of Africa. He is looking to develop a film studio in Zanzibar, a Tanzanian archipelago, that would be on par with any in “Hollywood, Nollywood, or Bollywood,” Zanzibar’s investment minister Shariff Ali Shariff confirmed, according to a separate BBC report.

“If successful, the project will help not only Tanzania but also eastern and central Africa,” said a spokesperson for Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan , per BBC.

The outlet also reported that Elba had revealed in February 2023 that he has big plans for a film studio in Ghana as well.