Ghana Movie Producers Impose Levy On Nollywood Actors

A recent report mak
ing the rounds in the Nigerian movie clan has it that the  Ghanaian movie producers in Kumasi popularly called kumawood the real Ghana Local movie industry who intend to involve Nollywood and other foreign actors in their movies are now expected to pay a levy to the film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) and the actors guild.
It was gathered that the reason for the new development according to the president of FIPAG, Asere Hackman is that FIPAG is worried over what they termed as the influx of Nigerian actors and actresses into the local movie industry as a few of them have featured in famous Kumawood movies, a situation which appears to be gaining grounds in Ghana.
He argued that the move would prevent some Kumawood actors from getting roles in movies. He noted that the coming of Nigerian actors and actresses into Ghana to shoot their movie is a worry to the association basically because most of their movies are not in English.
The president further disclosed that a system has been put in place that before foreign artistes come to Ghana to shoot a movie, the Ghanaian producer who engaged the artiste will pay a levy to FIPAG and the Actors Guild before the artiste will be allowed to work.
However some Kumawood producers are said to have argued that if they pair the Nigerian actors and actresses with their Ghanaian counterparts there is the possibility of increase in sales of the movies, while some industry players have held that no producer will be mandated to pay FIPAG or Actors guild any levy should they decide to bring down foreign actors.
They also warned that the move by the Association might create problems for Ghanaian actors who also ply their trade  in Nollywood.
It would be recalled that similar decision was taken by the Ghanaian producers in 2012 which led to battle of wits between the producers and Nollywood. The problem then was that the Ghana movie producers association announced its plans to charge each Nollywood actor featuring in a movie, a measure which did not go down well with the Nigerian producers who decided to ban Ghana actors who come to Nigeria to act in movies, but the matter was later resolved. It is feared that of the incident of 2012 rear’s up its ugly head again, the current cordial relationship between the two movie industries, might go awry.