Kwadwo Nkansah, popularly known as LilWin, once again looked to Nollywood for star power for his yet-to-be-premiered international film project, A Journey to Africa (Nzulezu).
Kanayo O. Kanayo, Patience Ozokwor, Mike Ezuruonye, Zubby Michael and Destiny Etiko were among the Nigerian stars who arrived in Ghana on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, ahead of the production.
For LilWin, however, it was more than another high-profile cast announcement. It continued an approach he has already tried with A Country Called Ghana: put a Ghanaian story and production at the centre, then bring in recognisable Nigerian actors to give the project a wider regional profile.
From A Country Called Ghana To A Journey To Africa
A Journey to Africa (Nzulezu) follows A Country Called Ghana, which featured Nigerian stars including Ramsey Nouah, Charles Awurum and Victor Osuagwu alongside Ghanaian actors.
LilWin presented the earlier film as part of his ambition to take Ghanaian filmmaking to a wider audience. The production secured cinema distribution in Ghana and Nigeria, while its director, Frank Fiifi Ghabin, said in February 2025 that it had received 17 awards from 33 nominations. The figure was disclosed by the director and has not been independently audited.
The film also made its way onto international streaming platforms. In July 2025, the Ghana News Agency reported that A Country Called Ghana was performing strongly on Amazon Prime and other international platforms.
There is independent evidence of a Nigerian theatrical audience too.
FilmOne’s 2025 Nigeria Box Office Yearbook recorded 23 Ghanaian films generating about ₦88.8 million from 9,375 admissions in Nigeria. A Country Called Ghana was among the better-performing Ghanaian titles in the report, although the yearbook does not give the film’s individual admissions or gross.
The available figures show that the film reached beyond Ghana, but they do not establish how much money it ultimately made.
Why Nigerian Star Power?
The current cast again gives the project a mixture of Ghanaian identity and Nigerian recognition.
Kanayo O. Kanayo and Patience Ozokwor are veteran Nollywood figures, while Mike Ezuruonye, Zubby Michael and Destiny Etiko have established audiences of their own. Their presence gives A Journey to Africa (Nzulezu) a cast that is recognisable well beyond Ghana.
LilWin has also continued to work with prominent Ghanaian actors, including Agya Koo, with whom he recently reunited on a movie set after years of reported rivalry.
There is also a straightforward audience logic to the arrangement.
A familiar Nigerian actor can bring an existing following to a Ghanaian production, particularly in a market where Ghanaian and Nigerian films have long competed for the attention of the same audiences.
LilWin has previously spoken about wanting his films to move beyond Ghana and eventually attract international stars. His use of Nigerian actors fits that ambition without requiring the production to abandon its Ghanaian setting or identity.
The Cost Of The Strategy
That regional reach comes at a price.
In January 2025, LilWin disclosed that he had paid more than US$40,000 for Ramsey Nouah’s role in A Country Called Ghana. He said the amount did not include accommodation and feeding for Nouah and other Nigerian cast members.
He also said he spent more than GH¢1 million on promotion, including more than 20 billboards and over 4,000 T-shirts. The figures were disclosed by LilWin and were not independently audited production accounts.
Those figures give some indication of the investment behind the previous project. They do not, however, tell us whether the film turned a profit.
Publicly available information does not provide its complete production budget, total revenue or profit.
What Does Ghana Gain?
The bigger question is what the strategy means for Ghana beyond the celebrity arrivals.
A Ghanaian production featuring Nigerian stars can give local actors, crew members, locations and stories exposure to audiences outside the country. That matters in an industry that has been the subject of continuing debate over declining audiences, production challenges and the wider fortunes of Ghanaian cinema.
Those concerns have been raised publicly by figures within the industry, including filmmaker Socrate Safo, who has criticised the state of Ghana’s movie industry.
Nollywood actor Kanayo O. Kanayo has also weighed in on the factors behind the decline of Ghana’s movie industry, highlighting the challenges facing the sector.
A Journey to Africa (Nzulezu) has a distinctly Ghanaian selling point of its own. The film is built around Nzulezu, the famous stilt settlement in Ghana’s Western Region, putting a recognisably Ghanaian location at the centre of a production designed to appeal beyond the domestic market.
If the film travels well, the benefits could extend beyond the actors on the poster. Ghanaian crew, locations, production companies and other local talent could also gain exposure from the project.
For LilWin, the more revealing figures will come later: where the film is distributed, how many people watch it and how much revenue it generates.
A Country Called Ghana provides evidence that the formula can take a Ghanaian production beyond its home market. A Journey to Africa (Nzulezu) now gives him another opportunity to see how far that approach can go.
