Idrissa Akuna Elba, a British Ghanaian actor, paid a courtesy call to President Akufo Addo.
Many diaspora and international stars have visited Ghana as part of the Year of Return and Beyond the Return schemes, including Idris Elba, who is slated to film a film in Ghana.
This will be the actor’s second trip to Ghana since 2015, when he shot Beast of No Nation. During his visit to the Jubilee House, he assured the president that he would help drive the Ghana film industry to the forefront by establishing a film school and fine-tuning the country’s film policies in his honor.
A healthy and robust film business, according to Idris Elba, begins at the policy level.
He stated that countries such as South Africa, Europe, Greece, and Morocco have invested in policies because they appreciate the monetary worth of the film industry. “The National Film Authority has done the work. Put together a comprehensive plan to propel Ghana into the forefront. It needs to be robust. It needs to be competitive. We believe for sure, and I know you believe in your legacy that you want to leave behind, that Ghana should step up to start attracting those filmmakers.
“What I want to do is that I have a film that I’m directing, and I’m hoping to bring that film, or at least some of that film, to shoot it in Ghana. That film will be here in December. We start pre-production in August. Some of the films, in two or three weeks, will be in Ghana by December.”
As a result of this strategy, Ghana will be portrayed as a business sanctuary.
