Most of media outlets in Ghana will go bankrupt if they attempt raising the pay of their personnel to acceptable levels, Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association, William Nlanjerbor Jalula has said.
Speaking on the remuneration of media personnel on the State of Our Nation, Mr. Jalula stated that the country’s media do not make income enough to offset their operational costs and at the same time, pay personnel well.
He said any move to significantly increase the salaries of media workers will worsen the financial status of media outlets in the country, which he asserted are struggling due to the unfavourable economic conditions and eventually, lead to their collapse.
“It’s practically impossible, in some instances, to want to pay beyond a certain limit. You have your strength and you can’t go beyond your strength. Then if you want to do that, you may just collapse and there will not be business. So you can choose to increase the salary of your workers , other areas will suffer and eventually, if you don’t take time, you will collapse,” he stated.
Mr. Jalula, who is also the Manager of A1 Radio in Bolgatanga, argued that although wages many media personnel receive are nothing to write home about, it is better to maintain the status quo than try a pay rise which outlets will struggle to pay and which may result in unrest in the media space over non-payment of salaries.
“It’s even better to keep to your strength, what you can pay on monthly basis so that you don’t owe your workers. So for instance, if you’re paying your staff say 200 cedis, it’s better to maintain the 200 cedis and pay the person than to increase it to 400 cedis when you know you can’t pay then 2 to 3 months, you’re owing your workers. That’s not right”.
He made these comments while sharing his views on findings of a report by the University of Ghana and the Media Foundation for West Africa on the state of the Ghanaian media.
The findings reveal that media practitioners in Ghana are not only poorly paid but mostly have their salaries delayed and in some instances, not paid at all.
But citing the report which also reveals that the media space is not financially viable and outlets only manage to break even, Mr. Jalula said the fourth estate of the realm is helpless about the plight of its personnel.
