Creative industry needs support - Minister

Ghana’s economy would expand if the creative industry is given the needed support to develop, the Minister of Tourism , Culture and Creative Arts, Ms Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare, has said.

To make this come true, she said the Ministry was doing everything possible to ensure that the industry got the needed support.

Ms Agyare said this in a speech read on her behalf by the Director of Procurement, Protocol and Special Duties of the Ministry, Mr Edwin S. Owusu-Mensah, at a forum in Bolgatanga, organised to solicit the inputs of workers in the creative industry into the creative industry bill.

She said the industry was contributing significantly to the Gross Domestic Product and had the highest potential of job and wealth creation among Ghanaians particularly the non-formal sector.

She told the workers of the creative industry that the Ministry had not only initiated the bill and was ensuring that it is passed into law as part of its efforts to empower them to improve upon their businesses, but had opened a Secretariat at the Ministry to help address their concerns.

Mr John Eugene Nyante Nyadu, the Principal State Attorney, who took the workers, made up of musicians, film makers, drummers and dancers, smock, basket and leather weavers, beauticians and tailors among others, said the passage of the bill would open up business for them.

He said their inputs would be considered and factored into the bill before lobbying for its passage.

Mr Azaanab Waksman, the Upper East Regional Director of Centre for National Culture, said the culture and creative industry was the fastest growing sector of the world economy and entreated Government to channel more resources to develop the sector.

The Regional Director expressed regret at the low publicity given to the intrinsic values and locations of tourist attractions in the country, cited for instance that in the Upper East Region almost all the thirteen Municipal and Districts had tourist sites which were not known by the public.

He appealed to the Sector Minister to impress upon the government to complete the uncompleted Regional Office Complex which had been abandoned for some years.

The Regional Director said the lack of theatre and office accommodation was militating against the smooth operations of the development of arts and culture in region, as the office building was dilapidated and needed repairs.