Ghana’s film regulator is preparing a sweeping shake-up of its television licensing system after mounting pressure from Nigerian filmmakers who say their work is being pirated on Ghanaian airwaves with near-total impunity.
James Gardiner, Deputy CEO of the National Film Authority (NFA), used a candid on-camera exchange with Nollywood producer Uchenna Mbunabo held in the presence of Ghanaian actress Jackie Appiah to lay out the government’s response to a complaint that has been simmering for months.
The conversation, shared on Instagram by movie director Ben Cassie, centered on copyright infringement and its impact on the African film industry.
Mbunabo’s frustration was blunt: he accused Ghanaian broadcasters of routinely lifting newly released Nollywood titles straight off YouTube and airing them without ever contacting the rights holders.
He questioned whether it had become legal in Ghana for television stations to download newly released Nigerian movies from YouTube and broadcast them without obtaining permission from the producers.
He went further, noting that despite the stereotypes Nigerians often face, he had never seen the reverse happen: Nigerian stations airing Ghanaian films without clearance.
Gardiner did not dispute the allegation. He acknowledged that the unauthorized airing of films remains a challenge within Ghana’s broadcasting industry and admitted that he is equally disappointed whenever he encounters such practices.
The core problem, he explained, is enforcement rather than the absence of law. Ghana has copyright laws, but enforcing them has become increasingly difficult because many television stations now operate digitally without fixed physical offices; some, he noted, could technically be Ghanaian broadcasters running their operations out of a country like Austria simply because everything is streamed digitally.
To close that gap, the NFA says it has opened talks with three key regulatory bodies. The Authority is working closely with the Ministry of Communications, the National Communications Authority, and the National Media Commission to identify and sanction stations breaching copyright law.
The centerpiece of the plan is a license reset: rather than trying to police the current, loosely defined field of broadcasters, the NFA wants to require every television station to reapply for its operating licence from scratch, giving regulators a cleaner mechanism to vet compliance going forward.
Gardiner sketched out a graduated punishment structure. Television stations found guilty of illegally broadcasting copyrighted content would be required to compensate affected producers through fines, with repeat offenders facing suspension of their licences, and a third violation potentially triggering outright revocation.
He also floated a restorative element to the policy, directing funds collected from penalties toward compensating filmmakers whose work was broadcast illegally, framing the fines as both a deterrent and a form of redress for the very producers being pirated.
Asked for a timeline, Gardiner was cautious but hopeful. He did not provide a specific timeline but said the reforms were already underway and expressed hope that significant progress would be seen next year. Several outlets reported him pointing more specifically to 2027 as the target for the new framework to be substantially in place.
This isn’t the NFA’s first public warning on the issue. Under Executive Secretary Kafui Danku-Pitcher, the Authority issued a formal notice in April 2025 after similar complaints.
The NFA reminded television stations that the Copyright Act, 2005 (Act 690), and other applicable laws provide clear guidelines on using protected works and that broadcasting copyrighted content without the rights holder’s permission is illegal and punishable by law.
That statement warned that such infringements violate content creators’ rights and discourage investment and creativity in Ghana’s creative industries.
Mbunabo is far from the only Nigerian voice to raise the alarm. Actors and producers including Bimbo Ademoye, Omoni Oboli, Mercy Johnson, and Ruth Kadiri have previously called out Ghanaian broadcasters over the same practice, and director Nosa Rex has separately accused a Ghanaian station of airing his film just hours after its official release.
Mbunabo was careful to frame his complaint as an appeal for fairness rather than a swipe at Ghana’s film industry. He emphasized that his concerns were not an attack on Ghana or its film industry, noting that he has worked with several Ghanaian actors over the years and remains committed to promoting collaboration between Nollywood and Ghallywood.
Ben Cassie, who posted the exchange, echoed that sentiment, arguing that unauthorized broadcasts strip producers of the revenue needed to pay cast and crew and fund future productions and that collaboration, not piracy, should define the relationship between West Africa’s two biggest film industries going forward.
Whether the NFA’s proposed licence overhaul will materialize on the stated timeline remains to be seen. The authority has issued strongly worded warnings before without a clear enforcement track record to point to.
For now, Ghanaian broadcasters have been put on notice, and Nigerian filmmakers will be watching closely to see if 2027 brings the accountability they’ve been demanding.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Ghana’s National Film Authority has publicly acknowledged that Ghanaian TV stations are illegally airing Nigerian films without licensing or compensation and has pledged concrete action rather than just words.
The plan includes requiring all TV stations to reapply for their broadcasting licenses, with penalties for violators ranging from fines to licence suspension and eventual revocation, with fine money potentially redirected to compensate affected filmmakers.
Deputy NFA CEO James Gardiner says the reforms should be substantially in place by 2027, though no firm enforcement timeline exists yet.
