Event organisers will now be compelled to make a 20 per cent down payment upon booking the National Theatre in Accra before being allowed to use the place for their events and programmes.

The new policy has been necessitated by the failure or refusal of some event organisers to pay for the use of the auditorium which has become one of the few venues for most of the country’s big indoor entertainment events.

According to the Executive Director of the National Theatre, Amy Frimpong, some organisers hitherto plead to use the auditorium for their events and pledge to pay later but always renege on their financial obligations.

This has left the National Theatre with some bad debt, 3news.com has gathered, prompting a revision of the booking policy.

Event organisers are charged 15,000 cedis for the use of the main 1,492-capacity auditorium of the National Theatre for 10 hours; six hours for set-up and four hours for the programme.

With the new policy, organisers will be required to make a down payment of 20 per cent of the amount ahead of the programme.

“Formerly, we gave organizers a full day when they book the venue, but we realized some event organizers will finish their setup, play music, put on the air conditions, lighting systems till the events start and in this case, we need to spend lots of money on our bills,” Mrs Frimpong told Christian Frimpong, on Anigye Mmre on Onua 95.1FM.

According to her, event organisers who decide to start their event later than the stipulated time agreed must be ready to pay extra money for any additional time.

Aside the main hall, the National Theatre have the Amphitheatre seats 300 people, an Exhibition hall with 500 capacity as well as dance rooms.