According to Myjoyonline.com report, Ace broadcaster, Kwami Sefa Kayi says the policy of paying TV license fee being advocated by the Ghana Media Commission is not the solution to the woes of the national broadcaster, Ghana Broadcasting Company (GBC).
“There is too much wastage in GBC…there is a lot of waste in GBC and no one is doing anything about it…George Sarpong knows the fundamental problem with GBC, it is not about collecting TV license…,” Sefa Kayi said on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen Programme on Tuesday.
The collection of TV license fee is in a law many believe has outlived its usefulness. But Director-General of GBC Major Don-Chebe (rtd) one of the champions of the revisited revenue generation policy sees it as a life-saving policy for the state broadcaster.
His call comes at a time when the state broadcaster may soon be axed from government’s list of subvented agencies. It means a new opening for revenue generation has to be explored.
He argued that one of the reason why the collection was stopped in the past was because of revenue leakages but also because the devaluation of the currency in the 70’s made it uneconomical to collect.
Nonetheless, the Director-General believes that with electronic means of payment, the conditions are right to seriously consider rolling out the policy next month.
Kwame Sefa Kaye popularly called ‘Chairman General’ says it is important for GBC to put its house in order and learn to judiciously make use of its income rather than depend on TV license.
READ ALSO: Forget Gay Marriages & Let’s Talk About the Latest Nonsense in Ghana…TV Licence Fee!
“TV license is not the solution to the problem of GBC. GBC is not doing anything better than what Despite Group or Multimedia is doing to warrant the payment of TV license to them…they fight for the same adverts as we also do,” he said.
Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Kabral Blay-Amihere, announced at a news conference in Accra last week that the resumption of the collection of the fees was expected to place GBC on a better financial footing to fulfill its public broadcasting mandate under the 1992 Constitution.
“The collection of realistic TV licenses will in time enable GBC to be weaned off government subvention,” he added.
Various commentators including Dr. Charles Wereko Brobby have described the decision to go after TV license as a ‘bad law’ which cannot help solve the problems of the GBC.
“Is GBC saying they cannot raise money to fend for themselves…what have they done with government subvention given them over a long period…?” he quizzed.
The process to helping GBC come out of its numerous woes, he said, should entail cutting what he described as the ‘too much waste’ at GBC.