AGN Election: Monalisa Chinda Plans Health Insurance Scheme for Veteran Actors

AGN Election: Monalisa Chinda Plans Health Insurance Scheme for Veteran Actors

By Adedayo Akinwale

Ahead of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) election scheduled for October 31, Nollywood actress, Monalisa Chinda, has revealed her plans to initiate a better health Insurance scheme for veteran actors.

Chinda who is vying for the position of Public Relations Officer of the organisation, said that the veterans actors, having used there skills and God-given talents to put Nigeria on a global map deserved to be treated in a dignified manner.

The screen goddess disclosed this while interacting with journalists on Saturday in Abuja, saying she decided to throw her hat in the ring and pick up the mantle.

Asked why she’s contesting, Chinda said: “I want to see how I can work hand-in-hand with the president to get a better health Insurance scheme for veteran actors. This issue of coming on social media and begging for money, it works me up. I’m really not the type that like to just sit down and keep quiet. I will use my voice in a subtle way not to attack anybody, but to really sound my displeasure on some of these things.

“We expose our respectable actors that they need N5,000 to treat cough, It’s quite embarrassing. We need to do something. We, as actors with faces can contribute like N1000 every month, it will go a long way, this is my number one reason.”

Chinda stressed that while
Nollywood has come a long way and has made much impacts on Nigerians, she said over the years, making movies have become more daunting due to certain structure that have not been in place.

This according to her, included the issue of piracy, stressing that the industry has not had enough help from government to tackle the menace.

She also said apart from the other streams of incomes actors and actresses have, the industry was not doing paying well, noting that they give out so much, but they are not getting back the value for the job done.

Chinda stated, “We have done so well for ourselves but in terms of paying bills, we have a long way to go.”

On the quality of movies that are churned out, she noted that poor production is gradually fizzling out because we have more educated people in the industry, adding, “then you just need to have basic education and skills, now you have to do research, because the competition is fierce.”

Speaking on the tax issue she had with the Lagos state government, Chinda explained that when the issue started, she had no idea of what it was about, but later realised that she hadn’t filed her taxes for a particular year, even though she had been paying her taxes.

“They said they wrote letters and I didn’t get the letters. I just think probably it’s a way to let people know that you have to file your taxes and pay your tax. There is no excuses when it comes to your obligation to the state, if you live there, if you work there these are the laws that are binding on you in the state. It is important that we pay our taxes.”

When asked if the tax issue cost her some businesses, she said it didn’t cost her anything, rather, “It got me jobs than I ever expected. The good thing is that it happened the way it happened.”

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