New AMP Leadership Tees Off With AMPFUND

At the height of the campaign to elect new officers for the Association of Movie Producers (AMP), notable Nollywood producer and director Ralph Nwadike, then an aspirant for the post of AMP President, promised that the first thing he would do if elected was to set up a production fund where members can source short-term loans to produce movies and soaps.

Now in the saddle, after defeating fellow producer and screenwriter Mrs. Lillian Amah-Aluko to emerge President in an election held on in December 2015, the new AMP boss who succeeded producer and award-winning writer and journalist, Mr. Zik Zulu Okafor, seem determined to keep that promise and others he made prior to his election.

Nwadike hinted during the week that he has set in motion the process of formally establishing what will be called the ‘AMP Production Fund’. Nwadike maintained that only members of AMP would access the funds when it is established.

According to him, “It is to aid production of movies and soaps on television. AMP members need to start producing movies and soaps. We cannot have our members sitting down without cranking a camera just because they cannot access funds elsewhere. This fund will go along way to get a lot of them back to the turf. The implication of this is that we shall be creating jobs and social security for our members”.

On when the fund would be ready for members to access, Nwadike hinted that the newly elected executives of the AMP are looking at launching the funding scheme sometime in March 2016, adding, “We are working on the details. I will be more definite as per dates and other details in the coming weeks”.

In an earlier interview with The Guardian, the new AMP boss said his other immediate task would be to unite members and bring all aggrieved members of the AMP back to the fold. How far has he gone with the reconciliation process?

He said, “It is still on going but we have made appreciable progress. A lot of our members who felt that they were not carried along or who for one reason or the other stayed back and withdrew their commitment to the association are gradually returning to the fold. We shall continue to reconcile interests and resolve disputes because we and I am talking about my executives don’t want to run an association of disgruntled members. We don’t want to run an association that is factionalized. We are going to review all the issues and the overriding objective is to bring back all aggrieved AMP members to a common table to address their grievances and ensure full reconciliation. We are even looking at collapsing some of the structures that have been created out of disagreements. AMP has to be one big family”.

While still at that, the new AMP boss promised to lead an AMP that would properly interface with government and its relevant agencies as well as corporate Nigeria on matters relating to motion picture business, noting, “We shall present a common position to this new government on the industry. We shall not go as individuals as was the case before now, but as a collective with AMP providing the leadership. We are already articulating a position, which we shall present to government on piracy, on distribution and regulation. We shall forge the same level of alliance with corporate Nigeria so that together we can form a beneficial alliance”.

Reminded that practitioners have consistently pressed for the institution of a proper welfare scheme at guild and association levels, Nwadike promised that his executive would in the next two years establish a welfare fund for AMP members. He also spoke of plans by the executive to revive the moribund AMP Health Insurance Scheme through partnership with corporate organizations. According to him the welfare fund would be disbursed to members as ‘welfare loan or emergency care loan’ that would be given to members on short-term basis to deal with emergencies.

The following practitioners were elected as executive members — Chinasa Joy Onyechere (Vice President), Forster Ojehonmon (Secretary-General), Grace Edwin Okon (Financial Secretary), Blessing Effiom Egbe (Treasurer), Remi Ibilola Olatunji (PRO) and Wisdom Nwankwo (Publicity Secretary).