Majid Michel: Stop comparing Ghallywood to Nollywood — it's a numbers game, not a talent gap

Veteran Ghanaian actor Majid Michel has ignited fresh debate about the state of Ghana's film industry by dismissing the popular habit of measuring Ghallywood against Nigeria's Nollywood as deeply misguided. Speaking on Y107.9 FM in Accra, Michel argued that the comparison is not only unfair but mathematically flawed — and that Ghana's entertainment sector deserves to be judged on its own terms.

A family of five versus a family of fifty

Michel deployed a striking analogy to make his case. He likened the two countries to households of vastly different sizes, arguing that a family with fifty children will statistically produce more doctors, criminals, talented individuals — and filmmakers — than one with only five. For Michel, Nigeria's dominance in film output is therefore less a reflection of superior talent or industry vision and more a straightforward consequence of population scale.

"The comparison between us and Nigeria is such a stupid comparison to me," he said bluntly. "If you have 50 children and I have five children, the possibility that you will have more criminals, doctors, good children and filmmakers than me is very high. So how on earth would you compare?"

Nigeria's population stands at well over 200 million people, while Ghana's is roughly 33 million — a difference that Michel says makes any direct output-for-output comparison meaningless. When adjusted for population, he suggested, Ghana's film industry may be performing far more competitively than the usual narrative implies.

Why it matters for Ghana

The Ghallywood versus Nollywood debate has been a recurring flashpoint in Ghanaian cultural discourse for years. Nigerian films and actors have achieved significant international visibility — on streaming platforms, at global award ceremonies, and in diaspora markets — and this has sometimes prompted soul-searching about whether Ghana's film industry is falling behind.

But Michel's intervention reframes that question in an important way. The conversation about Ghallywood has often focused on funding gaps, limited cinema infrastructure, and the difficulty of distributing Ghanaian content beyond domestic borders. Those are real and pressing concerns. However, framing the problem purely as a failure to match Nollywood's volume risks misdiagnosing it — and could lead policymakers, investors and creatives to set the wrong benchmarks.

If Ghana's film industry is evaluated relative to its population, resource base and the maturity of its supporting institutions, a more nuanced picture emerges. Michel's argument invites stakeholders — from the Ghana Tourism Authority to private investors and content creators — to think about what genuine success looks like for a mid-sized African nation with its own distinct cultural identity and storytelling traditions.

• Population context: Ghana has roughly one-sixth of Nigeria's population, making direct output comparisons inherently skewed.
• Institutional development: Michel also cautioned against comparing African nations to Western countries with centuries of institutional growth behind them.
• Cultural identity: Ghallywood's strength arguably lies in quality, cultural specificity and authenticity rather than sheer volume of productions.

Africa's broader development context

Michel did not limit his argument to the film industry. He extended his reasoning to the wider question of how African nations measure their progress against the developed world, arguing that countries with over 300 years of institutional development have had a significant head start in building the systems and structures that underpin thriving industries.

"It is unfair for us to compare ourselves with any other established nation in the world. When it comes to leadership, we are adolescent," he said, adding that Africa is still laying the foundations that older nations take for granted.

It is a perspective that resonates beyond entertainment. From healthcare to education and governance, Ghana and its neighbours are frequently judged against standards set by nations whose institutions were built over centuries — often, it must be noted, at Africa's expense during the colonial era.

Majid Michel's remarks are unlikely to end the Ghallywood-Nollywood conversation, but they do offer a more grounded and mathematically honest starting point for it. Rather than chasing Nollywood's numbers, Ghana's film industry may be better served by doubling down on what makes Ghanaian storytelling distinctive — and ensuring the infrastructure, investment and policy support exist to take that storytelling to the world.