“Comparing Ghana’s movie industry to Nollywood is stup!d” – Majid Michel

Veteran Ghanaian actor Majid Michel has described comparisons between Ghana’s movie industry and Nigeria’s Nollywood as unfair, arguing that Nigeria’s much larger population gives it a greater pool of actors, filmmakers and other industry professionals.

Speaking in a recent interview with Y107.9 FM in Accra, Michel said Nigeria’s population of more than 200 million people, compared with Ghana’s population of fewer than 40 million, makes the comparison unreasonable.

He described the comparison as “stupid,” using the example of two people raising different numbers of children to explain why the person with more children would naturally have a higher chance of having more doctors, criminals, successful individuals and filmmakers.

“The comparison between us and Nigeria is such a stupid comparison to me. 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,” he said.

Michel added that Nigeria’s larger population makes it reasonable for Nollywood to have more actors and filmmakers than Ghana’s film industry.

The actor also argued that Ghana should be cautious about comparing itself with more established countries in terms of leadership and development, noting that some nations have spent centuries building their institutions and systems.

“There are countries that have been in leadership for over 300 years. They have built systems. We are way behind. So it is an unfair comparison,” he added.