The global imaging company, Canon Corporation has announced the extension of the three-year strategic partnership agreement it entered with the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) in 2016.

The partnership is to build capacity and deliver industry skillsets to photographers and filmmakers, across all levels in the film and photography industry in Ghana.

It also seeks to mentor young talents through workshops and other photography activities, while exposing them to professional photography network opportunities to find rewarding careers on both local and international job market.

The two bodies signed a three-year partnership deal in 2016 under which 300 photography students and some top industry players  have been trained in various fields  including lighting, sports photojournalism, Street Photography, video filmmaking and storytelling.

The announcement was made by Katie Simmonds, Canon Miraisha program manager of the Canon Central and North Africa, during the opening of a week -long Film and Photography Excellence training workshop at the National Film and Television Institute in Accra.

“We are happy about the progress we have made so far, and we are very pleased to announce that we will be extending this partnership to 2019” said Simmonds.

The one-year extension, which was based on the impressive outcome of the three-year period. The new partnership will be used to asses overall performance and to explore other avenues to determine if long term partnership deal should be established .

In his opening remarks the Rector of the Institute, Dr. Samuel Anyetei Nai, expressed his appreciation to the management of Canon for partnering his institute to build capacity of photographers and also help positioning the local film and photography industry.

He said NAFTI is committed to the Canon- NAFTI  partnership hoping that they work together to ensure it benefits many more in the industry, adding that the collaboration with Canon Central and North Africa is a very strategic one, geared towards developing not only the knowledge of faculty and students of NAFTI, but also shoring up the professional skills and knowledge of the film and photography industry as a whole in Ghana.

According to him, it constitutes as one of the means in realizing the strategic goals of NAFTI in continuously modernizing the School, bringing the Institute's training in line with global standards of filmmaking and photography thus infusing international expertise to improve the quality of teaching and learning at the Institute.

He noted that  the impact of the partnership on the institute’s training has been impressive.

He disclosed that 98 percent of the NAFTI’s final year productions this academic year were shot with Canon cameras donated to the institute under the program.

This edition, which marks the end of series of workshops planned for 2018, attracted 90 participants from both state and private photography institutions, media organizations and professional photography bodies focused on wedding photography.

Canon through its Miraisha Sustainability program, established partnerships with institutions in some selected African countries, which is aimed at building the capacity and skills of photographers  in those countries they operate.

 Through the program over 4000 photographers and film makers  across Africa have benefited.

Simmonds said her company understands how the world is fast evolving with technology taking centre stage in everything and for that matter this edition will feature a series of seminars that will discuss Canon’s latest imaging products and technologies including the M50 and M100 mirrorless camera, and video  XA11.

 Additionally, the Canon basic DSLR  street photography workshop, the Canon wedding photography workshop, and theCanon C100 cinematographers workshop will have a live critique session of NAFTI’s final year student productions.

Canon is dedicated to educating its users and look forward to carrying out many more seminars, workshops, training and mentorships in the future.

This initiative is inspired by ‘Kyosei’, Canon’s corporate philosophy which embodies the ideal of living and working together for the common good.   

General Manager of Oman Forfor, Canon’s sole agent in Ghana Abbas Guul, advised photographers to purchase their Canon equipment from an accredited shops to enable them provide maintenance services for them.

Earlier this year, Omanforfor promised to establish a first ever  service centre in Ghana to enable photographers servicing their faulty cameras.