GIBA Studies Media Lay-offs

Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom

The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) will in the coming days look into and publish its findings on the recent mass staff lay-offs on the media front.

Some media firms, GN Media owned by Group Nduom and TV Africa have in the last few days laid off staff in what has been described as a restructuring exercise, heightening concerns as a similar incident followed the collapse of some banks.

President of GIBA, Andrew Danso-Aninkora, says the Association is beginning talks with labour unions to get to the bottom of the lay-offs in the media.

“We will need to meet and find out and understand what is going on and put out a document,” he said.

Meanwhile, an Economist, Professor Peter Quartey, believes the media houses that are currently challenged were not set up as viable businesses.

According to him, there is a link between the media staff lay-offs and the banking sector crisis.

“If the media outlets are not financially sustainable, they draw on these financial institutions in order to remain vibrant…and certainly once their source of funding dries up, they go down. But if they get a capital from their financier and you independent and viable, I don’t see why if your financier goes down you should also go down; unless there are no good corporate governance structure in those media houses,” he said.

The Founder and Chairman of Group Nduom, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has stated that he feels agonised anytime an employee of his firm is retrenched.

“At Group Nduom, we have over 6,000 employees. Most of them work hard. They have families and they have hopes for a better future. I agonize over even one employee who has to go home because the business cannot support him or her,” he said in a Facebook post.

Dr. Nduom also called on the government to help local businesses that show seriousness about doing the right thing.

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