Ghanaian actress and film producer Selassie Ibrahim has strongly criticised local television stations, accusing them of contributing heavily to the decline of Ghana’s once-thriving film industry, popularly known as Ghallywood.
Speaking passionately on Daybreak Hitz on Hitz FM, Ibrahim said TV channels have consistently prioritised cheap imported content over high-quality Ghanaian productions—making it nearly impossible for local filmmakers to survive.
According to her, while international films are welcomed and heavily aired, Ghanaian producers receive little to no support and are often offered acquisition fees that don’t come close to covering production costs.
“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.”
Ibrahim highlighted the staggering financial imbalance local filmmakers face. She revealed that while producers invest between $20,000 and $30,000 in a single project, TV stations sometimes offer as little as GH₵1,000 for the rights to air their content.
“You shoot content and send it to TV channels; they look into your eyes and tell you a thousand Ghana cedis when I spent over $20,000 to $30,000.”
She further pointed out that many stations opt for outdated foreign movies—some over a decade old and already fully amortised—yet sidestep new Ghanaian films that need support to break even.
“Yet they go and buy movies that are 10 years old that had made their money out of cinema and everything.”
Calling the practice economically illogical and destructive, the veteran filmmaker accused the channels of deliberately undermining the local 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?”
Ibrahim’s remarks have reignited long-standing conversations about the structural challenges facing Ghana’s film sector—and the urgent need for policy and industry reforms to revive the local creative ecosystem.
