VETERAN actor Abeiku Nyame, better known as Jagga Pee, wants President John Dramani Mahama to set up a welfare fund for veteran actors and actresses, arguing that performers who have spent decades entertaining Ghanaians have nothing to fall back on once roles dry up.
Unlike workers in formal employment, he said, actors simply don’t retire into financial security. When the roles stop coming, many are left to fend for themselves.
“I’ll plead with him to establish a welfare fund for veteran actors and actresses because you know, this work, we don’t come on pension,” Jagga Pee told the Graphic Showbiz on Tuesday, August 18.
He believes President Mahama, more than most, understands what veteran performers are going through, pointing to the President’s history of personally supporting actors such as Super OD, even before taking office.
Jagga Pee said the industry had made things harder for veterans in another way too: producers are increasingly casting younger actors in older roles instead of hiring the veterans themselves.
“The most unfortunate is that these days, they dress young men like old people. They paint their hair white and push them to play old people’s roles. That has contributed to our woes and pushed some of us out of business,” he said.
He was careful to stress that his appeal to the President isn’t political.
We have stars. But do we have an entertainment industry?
“I’m appealing to the President to establish the welfare fund, not out of ill motive. Over the years, he has shown that he loves the people in the arts, especially entertainment. Even when he was in opposition, he showed huge love to entertainers,” he said.
He recalled a moment that stuck with him when he was hospitalised; President Mahama arranged for his wife to visit. After he was discharged, Jagga Pee went to thank the President in person and came away touched by how he spoke about actors to the people around him.
“He was telling his visitors, ‘the man who made us laugh,’” Jagga Pee recalled.
For him, that kind of personal warmth is exactly why it should become something bigger, a real, structured welfare system, not just goodwill on a case-by-case basis.
Jagga Pee also pushed back on the idea that actors are financially comfortable just because they’re celebrities.
He explained that actors do negotiate their fees, but producers usually have the final say on what actually gets paid.
“Actors aren’t rich like the producers because when you charge them, they say, ‘Oh, it’s too much, it’s too much.’ No matter what, they will give you what they want,” he said.
He added that some producers have even stopped reaching out to veteran actors altogether, assuming they charge more than they’re worth.
He also compared Ghana’s film industry unfavourably to Nigeria’s, where he said actors are better paid and some even in dollars.
Touching on the state of the Ghana film industry, Jagga Pee doesn’t think it’s dead as some are saying.
“It’s not dead, but it’s shrinking,” he said, noting that only about five producers remain consistently active, while many others struggle to get films made at all due to weak audience turnout.
