The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter of the Actors Guild Of Nigeria (AGN) has held membership verification and revalidation exercises, urging members to subscribe to its health insurance scheme.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the exercise took place over the weekend at the Guild’s national secretariat in Abuja.
The process, which required in-person attendance, was designed to sanitise the Guild’s membership database, eliminate “ghost members”, and transition all records into the AGN Super App, a digital database platform.
The two-day exercise brought together Nollywood actors across the FCT.
In an interview with NAN on the sideline, the Chairman of the Screening Committee, Agility Onwurah, said the exercise was in compliance with directives from the national leadership of the body.
According to him, the mandatory exercise is to standardise and sanitise membership records across all state chapters of the guild, adding that members who fail to revalidate their membership risk being delisted from the official register.
Onwurah said: “As a Guild, this periodic verification is a part of our operations, especially when we have a new leadership like this.
“We use it to collate data about old and new members both within and outside the country, we use it to probably change ID cards if the incoming government wants to.”
The Chairman also encouraged actors to get enrolled in the guild’s health insurance scheme in order to access prompt and affordable medical attention whenever necessary.
Onwurah said: “To avoid imminent breakdown of their health, we are urging members to get enrolled in our HMO schemes for regular tests.
“We have HMOs spread across the country, and we are appealing to members who have not come on board to get enrolled.”
Also speaking with NAN, Salma Aminu, FCT Mayor of the AGN, said the exercise was to reinforce the accuracy, transparency, and credibility of the guild’s membership database, ensuring only legitimate practitioners are recognised.
Aminu, who hosted the event, lauded actors that took part in the exercise, adding that it was a show of commitment to initiatives that would move the guild forward.
He said: “There are a lot of people who claim to be members of Actors Guild of Nigeria that are actually not registered members, and we needed to actually ascertain who our members are.
“Those who did not show up for the verification exercise have automatically ceased to be members of the guild.”
Some participants who spoke with NAN lauded the leadership of the guild for the initiative.
Ace actor and producer, Jerry Amilo, said the exercise was apt and timely.
Amilo said: “Sometimes you meet some people who could claim to be members of Actors Guild of Nigeria, and you start wondering, but this exercise will really help us to know ourselves.”
Also, sensational actor, Benedict Johnson, commended the initiative, urging members to participate to ensure a seamless database update by the guild’s leadership.
