Information available to News One indicates that Nollywood producers are ganging up to ban Ghanaian actors who are plying their trade in Nigeria.

The decision was in a reaction to a decision by the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) to check the dominance of Nigerian movies in Ghana’s movies market, a move observers say could be injurious to be the careers of big names like Van Vicker, Jackie Appiah, Nadia Buari, Kalsum Sinare, Majid Michel, John Dumelo and Yvonne Nelson.

Late last year, FIPAG, as part of reforms in the absence of a Film Bill to regulate Ghana’s movies, decided to put measures in place to bring sanity in the industry. Among the various interventions they reached included cutting the number of movies released each week. They pegged the inflow to not more than three Ghanaian movies and one Nigerian movie every week.

According to them, a single release by a Ghanaian will thus attract a levy of GH¢50. A movie with two parts goes for GH¢100 with subsequent parts attracting GH¢50 for each. Non-members of FIPAG will however pay an amount of GH¢250 for a single movie, as against GH500 for non Ghanaian producers, with same applying to subsequent parts.

In addition, producers from different countries like Nigeria will not be allowed to premiere their movies in Ghana without permission from FIPAG and the Producers of Association of the country the visiting producer is from. NEWS-One has gathered that the development did not go down well with Nigeria producers, some of whom have been producing as well as premiering movies here in Ghana.

A source said the aggrieved Nigerian producers in Ghana are, as a result, relaying information to their colleagues in Nigeria to stop using Ghanaian actors. According to a source close to one of them, some of the movies they release here are Ghana-Nigeria collaborated movies and have been contributing to the growth of Ghanaian stars.

The source said asking them to pay ¢500 before releasing a single movie is not only outrageous but regarded as a move by their Ghanaian friends to stop their movies from entering Ghana. However, their Ghanaian counterparts hinted NEWS-ONE they are not the least perturbed by the Nigerian threat to ban Ghanaian stars.

“You cannot go into a different country and just start releasing movies. In Hollywood, even in Nigeria, they don’t allow that,” said one Ghanaian who wanted to be anonymous. “I sent my movie to Nigeria to release it and do you know how long it took me? It took me more than 6 months. It is right to put measures like that place,” he added.

Last Friday, Desmond Elliot premiered his latest movie, ‘Guilty Pleasures’ at the Silverbird Cinema in Accra. According to a reliable source, he did not seek permission from FIPAG as stipulated by FIPAG’s new reforms. On Sunday, Socrate Sarfo, the new public relations officer of FIPAG, told NEWS-ONE that they had just finished with their election and that they are yet to sit down to properly enforce their regulations.

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