Veteran Nollywood actor Kanayo O. Kanayo has lashed out at Ghanaian actors who, he says, insist on collecting the same appearance fee as Nigerian stars before they will share a set.
The actor spoke to Ghanaian media shortly after arriving in Accra for a new film project. He is in the country with Patience Ozokwo and other Nigerian colleagues. According to him, the fee dispute has already unsettled the production he travelled to shoot, and it is not the first time the argument has surfaced on a joint project.
“I am KOK. I was among the founding fathers. You now wake up in Ghana. They call KOK to come and act in Ghana; you Ghanaian boy, will now insist they pay you the same fees as me. It happens even up to today,” he said.
He anchored the complaint in rank rather than nationality alone.
“There is hierarchy even in heaven. In the movie industry, there is hierarchy. Negotiate what you want to be paid. Don’t equate yourself with me.”
Kanayo then directed a message at the wider Ghanaian industry.
“Tell your Ghanaian brothers and sisters, it is not your business what they pay Nigerian actors. Go and negotiate your own, receive it and go and rest, and then you will have peace in your life; otherwise, I will invoke Amadioha.”
He also said he was prepared to name the actors who made the demand on the current set. Colleagues at the scene prevailed on him to hold back, so no names have been released. No Ghanaian actor has publicly answered the remarks.
The clash sits inside a familiar tension on cross-border productions, where visiting Nigerian leads often arrive with established rates and local casts push to match them. Kanayo’s version frames that push as a refusal to accept industry hierarchy.