Mustapha Hamid Commends e. TV Made in Ghana initiative

Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid has commended e. TV Ghana for its innovative and patriotic initiative to celebrate inventors, goods and services made right here in Ghana.

Mustapha Hamid, who was speaking at the official opening of the e.TV Made in Ghana Month exhibition at Accra Mall yesterday, said the e. TV Made in Ghana Month celebration is a power and patriotic way of educating Ghanaians to be who they are meant to be.

The exhibition, which is currently on-going around the Food Court inside the Accra Mall, was officially opened on Thursday September 21 by Mustapha Hamid and will run through to Sunday September 24. The e. TV Made in Ghana month has over the years, been accepted as the official period for the celebration of great indigenous inventers in the country.

“Media house are supposed to educate, entertain and to inform. What e. TV Ghana is doing embraces all of the aspects of media communication. Most of the time, the majority of the media houses are doing just the entertainment and informing bit. But this is what I call real education, educating people to be who are meant to be,” the Minister of Information stated.

According to him, if all radio and TV stations in Ghana will take up the mandate to educate people to appreciate and patronize goods and services made in Ghana, we will get to a point where everyone will be truly Ghanaian.

He added that it is essential for every Ghanaian to know that God did not create them to be Ghanaians by accident.

“You are not Ghanaian by accident – whether you are a Christian or Muslim -, we believe that God created and made you Ghanaian on purpose and so how then do you exhibit or show you are a Ghanaian or show gratitude to the Almighty? The only way to show gratitude to the Almighty is to really show that I am proud of how and what He made me. And the way to do that is to be Ghanaian. There is no better way to do it than the way e.TV Ghana is doing it by encouraging us to be Ghanaian, to patronize made in Ghana goods and to wear Made in Ghana.”

“That is the reason I said that if all of our radio stations and TV stations were unanimous in this education, I think that we will get to a point where we will be truly Ghanaian,” he said.

He urged Ghanaian inventors and innovators to feel free to borrow cultures and turn them into indigenous goods and services.

“I am not saying we can shut ourselves out to foreign influences but when you take something foreign you can turn it to become indigenous. If the Iranians have been able to take the European’s shirt and ‘Iranianise’ in such a way that today when he is dressed and he is wearing his suit, you can identify him as an Iranian man, we as Ghanaians should also be able to innovative enough in that respect. We can borrow foreign cultures but we should turn these foreign cultures around and make them indigenous,” Mustapha Hamid noted.

However, Ernest Boateng, CEO of Global Media Alliance Group, disclosed that e. TV Ghana was the first TV station to set aside a month – the month of September- to celebrate and promote good and services made in Ghana annually.

“e.TV Made in Ghana Month started in 2013 with the vision to dedicate the month of September every year for the promotion and celebration of goods and services made right here in Ghana. This years edition dubbed ‘Ghana Inspires’, is meant to unearth great people who are doing marvelous things in their own small way to put Ghana on the map,” Mr Boateng said.