The Mercedes-Benz African Fashion Festival’s Ghana edition may seem posh and sound prestigious with a world class headline sponsor-Mercedes-Benz, but the executive producer and CEO of Global Ovations Group, the organisers of the annual fashion event has told GhanaCelebrities.Com they are cash-starved—-as part of his explanation to why several selected and rehearsed models boycotted the event at the last minute.
GhanaCelebrities.Com has received several disturbing complaints that border on exploitation and deceit of participating models of this year’s Mercedes-Benz African Fashion Festival held in Accra yesterday, a repeat of what happened last year and also a huge disparity in the treatment dished out to the local and foreign models.
Per a model who joined several indignant models to boycott the show a few hours to the catwalk, organisers of the event as at the day of the start had failed to pay them any reasonable remuneration as promised and had not also covered their many rehearsal travel expenses.
Though the models were not asking for anything huge in a form of payment, they expected to be given something reasonable to cover for their time, input and more importantly the cost of their transportation to the about 7 rehearsals they attended over the weeks.
But Global Ovations Group failed to honour a promise of payment and after a mini-furore, they were insulted with 50 GHS as payment—-when “several models had been flown from outside Ghana with expensive accommodations having been provided,” one of the models who wants her identity shielded said.
In fact, the models’ cause of anger and what makes this exploitative springs from the fact that, all along the organisers had promised them of a handsome payment for their service, time and expenses—-just that they were told to wait a bit for certain sponsorship payments in the pipe-line to arrive.

Having learnt from a similar experience last year where many of the models who participated in the this same festival were not paid and a few were handed peanuts because organisers claim sponsors failed to honour their commitments, the models demanded to be paid before making any walk this time—-and this was when 50 GHS for each model was put forward as all that can be given.
Several models found this extremely contemptuous and also as a mark of risible dishonesty, so they boycotted the event.
“The organisers claim they do not have money, yet they were able to fly models from Nigeria, Togo and South Africa, claiming the designers paid for their expenses and also placed them in expensive hotels while offering we the local models 50 GHS each. If they do not have money as they say, why organise the event and how did they pay for these foreign models? If the designers are taking up the cost of foreign models, why can’t the same designers pay us something too or take up even our transportation cost” a model rhetorically asked while complaining to GhanaCelebrities.Com.
It’s unfortunate that there seems to be a clear disparity in treatment meted out to the foreign and local models—-with the former being well treated and compensated, while the latter’s basic cost wouldn’t even be taken care of.
With a tall list of sponsors such as Mercedes-Benz, Euro Star Limousine, McVities, Silver Star Auto, Bel Acqua, Palace and others, it’s shocking as to why these models, many of which are young talents are seemingly being taken for granted or misprize by the organisers.
When GhanaCelebrities.Com contacted Raji Gideon, the executive producer and CEO of Global Ovations Group, organisers of the Mercedes-Benz African Fashion Festival in Ghana, he admitted his outfit is cash strapped—-but they managed to offer 50 GHS to the models as payment which some found insulting and therefore boycotted the event.

When we asked if he honestly thinks it was fair to pay a model 50 GHS, especially when the person had attended about 7 rehearsals with all transportation cost self-paid—-he said, he told the models he didn’t get what he expected from his sponsors so they were aware they wouldn’t be paid.
As to when he told the models this, he replied by saying, he initially told the models he was waiting on sponsors for some money from which he was going to duly pay them but 2 weeks to the event when he realised the sponsorships were not forthcoming, he made them aware—-this was after the models had attended several rehearsals, all expenses paid by themselves.

Even with this, the models who complained rebutted, saying it is a lie: he only told them about the lack of sponsorship when they demanded to be paid a few hours before the event—-and that all along, they were told payment was going to be made, the reason why they kept spending money to attend rehearsals in preparation.
Raji Gideon claims even his headline sponsor-Mercedes-Benz paid him nothing, and he is just using their name freely, perhaps as a garnisher to make things seem prestigious.
Interestingly, some of the models believe the organisers have received enough money from the many sponsors but they’ve pocketed them all out of greed and also because there are no industry mechanisms to check such gross exploitation.
Paying a model 50GHS when tickets are being sold for 200 GHS is the definition of piss-take.

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