Mr Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, says the government has no intention of privatising the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), the only state broadcaster.
He, therefore, asked the staff of GBC to ignore such rumours.
The Minister gave this assurance at a durbar organised at the GBC headquarters in Accra when he paid a working visit to the facility.
The staff of GBC had questioned the rationale for the “government’s intention to hand over GBC to private entities to manage,” describing the alleged intention as unfair to the staff of GBC, especially the long-serving ones, in the quest to move from analogue to digital.
The Minister said transforming GBC did not lie only in the hands of the Minister or the Corporation’s Board Chairman, but required a concerted and collective approach from all stakeholders.
Professor Amin Alhassan, Director-General, GBC, said out of the 23 local languages that the GBC broadcast in, only three were profitable and only two of the eight studios in the Corporation worked effectively.
He said GBC requires deliberate government intervention in key areas like procuring equipment, payment of electricity, as well as funding for their long-service award programme to be more productive.
During an interaction, other staff members of the Public Service Broadcaster urged the Minister to work towards ensuring that they got sustainable funding to operate the Corporation.
Others called on the government to let their single spine reflect in percentages in their salaries, and put in place a realistic scheme of service and clearly defined ways that staff were expected to work.
They also required measures to promote accountability, efficiency and provide proper remuneration for the staff of the Corporation.
“A [member of] staff can be working for 10 years without promotion on the basis that the Corporation is not getting budget from the government. This kills our spirit and deters us from giving off our best,” a staff said.
Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison, Chairperson, Parliamentary Select Committee on Communications, said the Committee acknowledged the hard work and dedication of those in the state-owned media, hence was ready to support the government to promote their growth.
“However, I believe every one of you here has to demonstrate positivity to uplift the image of GBC so that by its 90th birthday, it will be a new GBC,” she said.