Nigerian veteran film producer, Uchenna Mbunabo, has revealed to Mustapha Inusah that the way Ghanaian film producers are treating Nigerian filmmakers in Ghana is a clear infringement of ECOWAS treaties.

The producer, who doubles as the CEO of One & Two film production ventures, revealed that, there’s a positive side to some of the actions and laws Ghanaian film producers are implementing against Nigerians, although some of the other regulations are too stringent and not appropriate for the ECOWAS treaty of free trade.

According to him, he came to Ghana in 2008 because he thought Ghana had a friendly and peaceful ambience to shoot movies. He narrated that, any time he went on-set to shoot a movie, the Ghanaian film producers always came around with their task force and policemen to maltreat him and prevent him from shooting.

On one of such occasions, he claimed to have paid an amount of $5000 to Ghanaian film makers, without being given any receipt or document to show that he has paid a certain amount and the reason for paying that amount.

On many occasions after shooting, he has to change the movie credit into the names of some Ghanaian film producers as the owners, before the movies allowed into the Ghanaian market.

Talking about the positive aspect of the maltreatment, he said that, it is a good thing if the Ghanaian film producers are doing that to protect their industry, but they need to do it in a good and professional way.

On the subject of Ghanaian film producers shooting in Nigeria, he said that, Ghanaian producers he knows are all shooting freely in Nigeria. “Ghanaian film producers always shoot in Nigeria and they always shoot without any issues from their Nigerian counterparts.

Maybe some of them are not popular here in Ghana and much research has not been done that’s why Ghanaians don’t know about them. You can shoot in Nigeria freely as far as you are not doing anything discriminating,” Mr. Mbunabo said.