The Majid Michel Nollywood Ghallywood talk is about distribution, as Ghana's Majid Michel, a screen performer, has dismissed any pairing of his country's film industry with Nigeria's as "stupid", speaking in a radio interview in Accra. His remarks on Nollywood and Ghallywood have been picked up widely by Nigerian and Ghanaian media, and they revive a question about why Ghanaian films find it hard to reach audiences abroad while its music crosses borders with ease.
Read in full, though, the interview is less about rivalry than about logistics. His sharpest point concerns distribution: where Ghanaian films can actually be shown.
What Majid Michel said about the Nollywood and Ghallywood comparison
Michel spoke on Y107.9FM in Accra, according to YFM Ghana's report of the interview. He was responding to concerns about the perceived decline of Ghana's film industry while Ghanaian music gains international recognition.
His first argument is about numbers. Differences in population size and industry infrastructure, he said, make it unreasonable to expect both countries to produce films at the same scale.
He then used a family analogy, as PM News reported.
"If you have 50 children and I have 5 children, the possibility that you will have more criminals, doctors, good children and filmmakers than me is very high." (Majid Michel)
By that reasoning, he argued, it is only natural that Nigeria produces more people who make films than Ghana does, since its population is so much bigger.
The reports differ slightly on the population figure he gave for Ghana. YFM Ghana has him saying over 30 million, while PM News quotes him as saying under 40 million. Both put Nigeria at almost 300 million.
No comparison with older nations either
Michel did not stop at Nigeria. In his view, holding Ghana up against any country with a much longer history is also not a fair test.
"When it comes to leadership, we are adolescent. There are countries that have been in leadership for over 300 years." (Majid Michel)
He added that such countries have built systems, and that Ghana is far behind them. Leadership also reported his remarks, describing the comparison as unfair and illogical on grounds of population size and structural development.
Michel also rejected the idea that Ghana's film industry is dying. According to YFM Ghana, he questioned the basis for such claims and said films are still being produced.
The distribution problem behind the soundbite
The most practical part of his argument came when he turned to money and venues. He contrasted musicians, who can earn from streaming, with filmmakers, who lack an equivalent route.
He asked where a finished film would be shown, a question that points to a distribution and exhibition problem rather than a talent gap. In YFM's account, he asked: "If we shoot the film today, where are we showing the film?"
That framing shifts the Majid Michel Nollywood Ghallywood debate away from who has better actors. It asks instead whether Ghanaian producers have cinemas, platforms and revenue channels to recoup what they spend.
Michel urged practitioners to be patient, keep building the sector and focus on their own contributions rather than comparisons with other countries. He also said knowledge should be passed on to the next generation.
A wider debate over what to learn from Nollywood
Michel is not the only Ghanaian star weighing in. Speaking on Joy FM on 25 October 2026, actress Yvonne Okoro asked why audiences readily watch and praise Nollywood films, including productions on YouTube, yet doubt local ones before seeing them, according to Pulse Ghana.
Earlier in the month, at the Pete Edochie Legacy Project gala in Accra on 4 October, actress Jackie Appiah was blunter about output. Halmblog reported her saying: "Of course, the industry has gone. We're not producing at the same volume like we used to produce."
She argued that Ghana should build Nollywood-style behind-the-scenes talent such as scriptwriters and camera crew.
Others at the same gala, and since, have added their own points:
- Nigerian veteran Pete Edochie appealed to Ghana's President Mahama to fund local filmmakers, calling Ghana his second home.
- Kanayo O. Kanayo told Ghanaian actors to stop demanding the same pay as Nigerian stars.
There is a regulatory strand too. ThisDay reported that Ghana's National Film Authority announced a crackdown on TV stations airing Nigerian films without authorisation, after complaints from Nigerian producers. Broadcast licences could be revoked and reissued on stricter terms by 2027.
No Man of God and what comes next
Michel is currently promoting his latest film, No Man of God, an action film in which he plays a pastor with a military background. It is the kind of project his distribution argument bears on directly.
The screening details are as follows:
- Venue: the Bukom Boxing Arena.
- Dates: 13, 14 and 15 November, with shows at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
- Tickets: regular tickets cost GH¢120 through cinematrain.com or by dialling *7139000#.
The choice of a boxing arena rather than a conventional cinema is itself telling. It suggests the exhibition gap Michel describes is real enough that producers are improvising venues.
For Nigerian readers, the Majid Michel Nollywood Ghallywood exchange is a useful reminder that Nollywood's scale rests on more than star power. Population, infrastructure and routes to audiences all matter, and Ghana's industry is now openly debating how to build them.
