'The future looks good for GNA' - CEO

By Bertha Badu-Agyei, GNA
Koforidua, June 27, GNA - Bernard Otabil, the outgoing General Manager (GM) of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), has said he is confident of the future of the Agency, and that it would significantly assume its rightful place as the nation's premier wire service.

He said he had no doubts that the quality of the GNA human resource base and the solid foundation laid under his watch over the past three and half years would ultimately change the fortunes of the Agency and propel it to greater heights.

'Today, when we talk about GNA it is about five different products, and not just one. We were noted for text files but now we can boast of GNA TV that provides content for television, GNA Centre for Journalism and Multimedia Studies, labaari.com and other innovations such as the ability for editors to now log in and select stories and other files from the Agency's platform, Editors' Picks', the CEO explained.

The CEO, who has taken up a new appointment and begins his terminal leave from July 4, is satisfied with his achievements over the past years and has given his firm assurance that his departure would not be the end of his passion towards GNA.

In a farewell meeting with the staff of the Agency in Koforidua, he indicated that despite the challenges faced by the Agency, 'it shall be well' and called on the staff to step up their efforts and demonstrate beyond the rhetorics that indeed they had GNA at heart.

He said contrary to perceptions that GNA was collapsing, he was of the view that GNA under his administration had repositioned itself to be a self-sustaining institution in the nearest future and said that GNA only needed business- oriented leaders who understood the dynamics to get there.

'GNA's work has been questioned many times. History recalls how during the Second Republic a prominent minister was heard to ask why Ghana should have a news agency when bigger countries in Africa did not find it necessary to establish them. Today, in the digital era, the same issues are discussed as some people feel that the country can do without a news agency. That is so wrong', the CEO said.

He added: 'Our mandate is so clear and makes us central to national development. Take the case of the national development agenda set by successive governments; once the Government has embarked upon a particular development strategy, we propagate such messages to the under-served in the country because of our rural reach. If 70 per cent of the people are based in the rural areas, then as the news media with the widest network in the country, it goes without saying that we are central to national development'.

The CEO added that the challenges of the Agency had rather motivated the leadership to be innovative, saying: 'The story of GNA is a good one since we have been able to use 'non-traditional' means to generate funds to purchase basic items for the office'.

'To the extent that we could generate some windfall from the newly developed business units to buy a motorbike, renovate a room to create an innovation hub and buy chairs for the Centre of Journalism and Multimedia Studies shows how far we have come', the CEO added.

Touching on the Events and Conferences unit of the Agency, the CEO added that 'We have built partnerships with leading organisations to develop programmes for journalists. We have had sponsorship from the US Embassy, Tullow, Kosmos, Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), Ecobank, Stanbic and many others because we managed to sell them an idea which they found worthy supporting'. 'We did not sit down and wait for money from government, we helped ourselves when we hit difficulties', he said.

That, he said, must be the motivation for staff of the Agency to be resolute and show more zeal and comportment to the outside world that 'yes GNA is challenged but not collapsed and with the little push it shall surely make it to a much higher height'.

Mr Otabil took over the management of GNA at a time when the Agency was financially constrained, solely dependent on government subvention to operate and had only a single line product.

Today, he leaves GNA with the solid achievements of moving the GNA from a single line to a multiple product line, which can boost the fortunes of the Agency.

GNA