The former Executive Secretary of the National Film Authority (NFA), Juliet Asante, has shared the harrowing ordeal she went through after her appointment to head the authority.
Juliet did not expect the woes that would befall her when, in November 2020, she was asked by the minister to take the job of the Executive Secretary of the National Film Authority.
“With a paper in hand, but no office or money, I set out to recruit staff. With two staff members, we started the work. I took time to draft a strategy paper. But it became very clear, very quickly, that no one was interested and that this was going to be a very, very long road…”
According to her lengthy post on Facebook, in her first year at NFA, she only received 1000ghc ($100) as budgetary allocation for the entire year. Her second year, however, saw an increase in the annual budget to 10,000ghc (about $1000 at the time).
She further disclosed that neither she nor any of her staff members were paid for the first two years in office.
“We had to shoulder the cost of running a government office from our pockets. We worked from my home or the homes of other staff members. There was absolutely no one to show us the ropes of how to set up a new Government agency and while we were struggling to understand what to do and not to do… I was dealing with a very antagonistic board, that told me upfront that i wasn’t who they wanted.”
“The first activity we tried to do was gather data to understand the sector and problem we were dealing with. This activity was blocked by the board, and almost everything after that was challenged or blocked. Board meetings were a sight to behold. Thankfully, the Covid video took off, and many Ghanaians found solace in the beautiful video giving hope to many, without realizing that it was from the newly formed National Film Authority. filmmakers contributed the video for free,” she wrote.
After being in office since November 2020, staff at the NFA received their first salaries, although “money was still so tight and we still had inadequate office space, no car for work, nothing… even the machines used at the office was personal to many of us. Everything you have seen online was edited on my personal machine.”
She relived one experience which almost shattered her. A day she was caught between two male bosses.
“One lifted me up bodily and shoved me into the arms of another, insisting that I give him a hug! The latter hugged me and made the comment ‘maybe, I am the one who will marry you one day’… that night, I scrubbed myself until my skin was tender… I felt dirty.”
With all these experiences, Juliet prayed her successor, Kafui Danku, enjoys a better experience at the National Film Authority, hoping and praying she does not suffer the same fate as her.
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