Ghanaian actress and film producer Selassie Ibrahim has criticised local television channels, blaming them for the decline of Ghana’s once-vibrant film industry, popularly known as “Ghallywood.”
Speaking on Daybreak Hitz on Hitz FM, Ibrahim argued that local channels prioritise cheap foreign content over high-quality Ghanaian productions, making the business model for domestic filmmakers unsustainable.
The Unprofitable Local Content Dilemma
A key figure in the industry for decades, Selassie Ibrahim condemned the low acquisition fees offered to Ghanaian producers compared with the ready acceptance of foreign movies.
“Look, the TV channels are not helping us. I’ll say it again. I don’t care what they think. I don’t care what they say. I’ve said it before and they bashed me. But you know what? I will still keep saying it until they help us,” she said.
She highlighted the massive gap between production costs and the fees offered by local channels, which she says forces producers into debt:
“You shoot content and send it to TV channels; they look into your eyes and offer a thousand Ghana cedis [GH₵1,000] when I spent over $20,000 to $30,000.”
This pricing structure, she argues, makes it nearly impossible for producers to recover their investments, contributing to the current stagnation in industry activity.
Prioritising Cheap Foreign Films
Ibrahim also criticised channels for favouring old foreign films over new Ghanaian productions.
“Yet they go and buy movies that are 10 years old that had made their money from cinema and everything,” she said.
She accused local broadcasters of deliberately undermining the domestic creative economy:
“You want us to sell it to you the same? Do you want to collapse [our businesses]? You’ve done it. When people say, ‘oh, Ghanaian film is dead,’ my heart bleeds, but how many people can you explain to that it started from the TV channels because they killed our industry?”
The Failure to Celebrate Our Own
Ibrahim also highlighted a cultural issue: the lack of appreciation for local content in Ghana.
“Because when you go to Nigeria, you don’t find them watching any Ghanaian movie. But in Ghana, anything foreign is fine; everything Ghanaian is bad. They will criticise. They will not go and watch. I can’t figure it out? We don’t know how to celebrate our own… and that is what has killed Ghana movie till today.”
Ghana’s film industry, which thrived in the early 2000s, has seen a sharp decline in production since 2015. Analysts point to low TV licensing fees, the proliferation of cheap satellite channels, and the absence of government-imposed local content quotas as key drivers of the collapse.
Ibrahim’s comments place responsibility squarely on television channels and regulatory bodies, urging them to implement fair pricing and supportive programming strategies to revive Ghana’s film industry.
