Former president John Mahama is making a case for Ghanaians to pay TV licenses in the wake of widespread public uproar against the policy.
The Chief Justice has set up 11 special courts across Ghana to prosecute TV license fee defaulters. The development has incurred the wrath of Ghanaians in general who have resolved never to pay TV license fee.
Wading into the controversial debate, former president Mahama said the government must define the proper categorisation of the state broadcaster GBC to determine funding for it.
The fees will assist GBC to raise funds to support the state broadcaster develop content that will promote and preserve the country’s culture among others.
Mahama stressed in an interview with Abdul Moomen of GTV that Ghana has to learn from best practices around the world.
“TV License is paid in many countries even in advanced countries in order to be able to provide resources for the public broadcaster to be able to put on the programmes that continue to identify the culture of the people,” Mahama stated.
He added: “There are best practices we can look at and adapt going forward. What we need to do is to categorise GBC properly and to what we want it to be. GBC is a bit of a hybrid and seems to be competing with the private TV stations and doing public broadcasting at the same time. If we decide what it should be we can look at best practice across the world and decide how to fund GBC.”
Since the special court began sitting last week no case has been held.
