Ghana had the head start
After independence, Kwame Nkrumah's government set up the Ghana Film Industry Corporation, with studios and
equipment few African countries could match.
And when the video-film revolution began in the late 1980s,
Ghanaian pioneers like William Akuffo, with Zinabu (1987), were shooting features on VHS years before
Nigeria's breakout hit, Living in Bondage, arrived in 1992.
Today the picture is reversed. Nollywood is one of the most productive film industries on earth, with blockbuster cinema releases and global streaming deals. Ghana's industry, often called Ghallywood, with its Kumasi-based Twi-language cousin Kumawood, is creative and loved at home, but far smaller.
So what happened? It isn't that Nigerians are more talented. It comes down to five things: market size, money, distribution, policy and global reach. Let's look at each.
The gap, by the numbers
The clearest sign of the gap is the cinema till. In 2025, Nollywood films took 49.4% of all box office money across Anglophone West Africa, while Ghanaian and Liberian films combined took just 7.2%.
Start with people. Nigeria has about 237.5 million, according to UN estimates while Ghana has about 35.1 million.
Nigeria's National Film and Video Censors Board classified 1,185 films in 2025, up from 1,088 in 2024, though that count includes some foreign titles. Ghana has no official count, and one industry estimate puts it near 200 films a year.
Nollywood's biggest hit of 2025, Funke Akindele's Behind the Scenes, earned N1.32 billion that year. No one can say what Ghana's biggest hit earned. Nigeria tracks ticket sales weekly through Comscore, FilmOne and cinema exhibitors, while Ghana has no comprehensive box office tracking system.
The whole regional box office, Nigeria plus Ghana and Liberia, was N15.6 billion (about $10.4 million) in 2025. That's a record, but small by global standards, which is why streaming and YouTube matter so much to both industries.
a home market big enough to pay for films
Nigeria has roughly seven people for every one in Ghana. That one fact shapes everything. A Nigerian producer can make a film for Lagos alone, a city with millions of moviegoers, and still turn a profit before selling a single ticket abroad.
Nigeria also has several markets in one. Beyond English-language Nollywood, there are large Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa audiences, each with its own stars and fan base. Ghana has its own version in Kumawood's Twi-language films, but the total pool of paying viewers is much smaller.
History made the gap worse. When Ghana's state film corporation was sold off in the 1990s and local production slowed, Nigerian videos filled the gap on Ghanaian screens, according to research on the Kumasi film industry (Ghana Studies). For years, many Ghanaians grew up watching Nollywood. Nigerian producers gained a second market; Ghanaian producers lost part of their own.
cinemas, distributors and box office money
When DVDs died, both industries lost their main way of earning money. Nigeria rebuilt around cinemas; Ghana largely didn't.
Nigeria's cinema screens grew from 218 to 369 between 2019 and 2025, and Nollywood titles now take a bigger share of those screens than Hollywood. Professional distributors like FilmOne push local films hard, and producers such as Funke Akindele have turned December releases into national events. Her Everybody Loves Jenifa passed N1 billion in 2024, and Behind the Scenes did it again in 2025.
Ghana's story is different. Producer Abdul Salam Mumuni recalled that a single Ghanaian premiere at Silverbird could once fill up to nine halls. He blamed weak films for driving audiences away, and noted that cinemas are now concentrated in Accra and Kumasi, leaving most of the country with nowhere to watch. Kumawood producer Jackson K. Bentum makes the same point: the industry isn't dead, it simply lacks cinemas.
The result is a vicious circle. Fewer screens mean smaller earnings, smaller budgets, weaker films and smaller audiences, which in turn keep investors away from building new screens.
streaming deals and global reach
When Netflix and Amazon came to West Africa, they went to Nigeria first because that's where the volume, the stars and the audience were. Netflix put about $23.6 million into Nigerian film over eight years, funding licensed titles, co-productions and originals. That money raised budgets, polished production values and put Nigerian faces in front of global audiences.
Ghana has had real streaming wins, such as The Burial of Kojo, picked up by Ava DuVernay's ARRAY for Netflix in 2019, and Peter Sedufia's Keteke and Sidechic Gang in 2020. But these were individual deals, not a pipeline. Research reported by The Conversation found many Ghanaian filmmakers see global platforms as hard to reach and hard to earn from, with only a well-connected few getting in.
There's a twist, though. Streaming money proved fragile. Amazon Prime Video pulled back from Nigeria in 2024, and Netflix cut back on commissioning Nigerian originals, though it says it hasn't left. Nollywood survived the shock largely because it had built a cinema business at home. That's a lesson Ghana should note: global deals help, but a strong local market is the foundation.
private money, data and slow policy
It's tempting to say Nigeria's government built Nollywood. It didn't. Nigerian commentators often complain that their governments have promised creative funds for years with little follow-through (ThisDay). Nollywood grew mainly on private money: marketers, cinema chains, distributors, banks and later streamers, all betting on a large audience.
Still, Nigeria has added public support. A N5 billion Creative Fund set up with Providus Bank in December 2023 made its first payouts, N1.5 billion to four actors and producers, in May 2024. Just as important is data. Weekly box office figures make it easier for investors to judge which films and stars make money.
Ghana's law has existed for a decade, but the money arrived slowly. The Development and Classification of Film Act (Act 935) was passed in 2016 and created the National Film Authority and a Film Development Fund. The fund was only launched on May 20, 2026, with GH¢20 million budgeted, of which GH¢5 million had been released at launch. That's a real step forward, but it came ten years after the law. Meanwhile, Ghana still has no comprehensive box office tracking, which makes investors nervous.
stars, unity and soft power
Nollywood runs on a star system. Names like Funke Akindele can open a film on their own, and audiences across Africa know Nigerian actors by face. Bigger markets pay bigger fees, so talent flows towards Lagos. Some of Ghana's best-known actors, including Majid Michel, Van Vicker and Jackie Appiah, built much of their fame in Nigerian productions. Ghanaian commentators note that low pay and irregular work keep pushing skilled Ghanaian creatives towards larger markets like Nigeria.
Unity matters too. Ghana's industry split into an English-language Accra scene and a Twi-language Kumasi scene, and the rivalry between "Ghallywood" and "Kumawood" has been blamed for weakening both. Nigeria has language divisions as well, but its industry speaks to the world with one loud brand: Nollywood.
Finally, there's soft power. Nigeria's huge diaspora and the global rise of Afrobeats have made Nigerian slang, food, fashion and humour familiar far beyond Africa. Every Afrobeats hit is, in a way, free advertising for Nollywood. Ghana's music is strong too, but Nigeria's cultural exports reach more people, more often.
What Ghana does well, and how it can close the gap
Ghana is not starting from zero. It has NAFTI, which has trained filmmakers for decades. It has award-winning directors like Blitz Bazawule and Peter Sedufia. Kumawood has quietly moved to YouTube, where popular channels draw millions of views a month. And Ghana is becoming a filming location: Kunle Afolayan's Netflix series Aníkúlápó chose Ghana for shooting.
Ghana doesn't need to copy Nollywood's volume. It needs to fix the business around its talent:
- Spend the film fund wisely and openly. Back fewer, stronger projects with clear rules, so the fund builds trust rather than suspicion.
- Build screens beyond Accra and Kumasi. Small, affordable cinemas in regional capitals would reach audiences that currently have nowhere to watch legally.
- Track the box office. Publish weekly ticket sales, as Nigeria does. Data turns film from a gamble into an investment.
- Invest in scripts. Audiences walked away because of weak stories, not because they stopped loving Ghanaian films.
- Co-produce with Nigeria instead of competing. Shared casts, crews and releases give Ghanaian films access to Nigeria's huge market.
- Unite the industry. Accra and Kumasi are stronger as one Ghanaian brand than as rivals.
Nollywood's lead is real, but it was built on business decisions, not magic. Ghana had the head start once. With the right moves, it can be a serious player again.