Tourism Minister meets leadership of the creative arts industry

Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, Minister of Tourism Arts and Culture has reiterated governments recognition of the potentials abounds in the Creative Arts industry and the Tourism Sector in general hence, the various packages outlined for them.

She said the aim of all these incentive packages into the tourism and creative arts sector, was to revamp the sector to become buoyant and translate into Ghana's GDP growth, by creating employment opportunities for the Ghanaian citizenry.

The Minister made this observation at a stakeholders meeting with the leadership of the creative arts industry, in Accra.

She said the meeting was to collate views on how to help practitioners in the creative arts space to access government Stimulus Package as announced by the Minister for Finance during his Mid-year Budget review.

She said the GHC50 million earmarked by the government for the sector was a welcoming news to cushion the industry and her outfit would further engage the Finance Ministry to tailor in the appropriate modalities that would be suitable for the sector to access the Fund.

Mrs Oteng- Gyasi charged practitioners who would want to access the facility to endeavour to liaise with the Ghana Revenue Authority to generate Tax Identification Number(TIN) for them to qualify for the package.

She also urged the leadership of the practitioners to fashion out the appropriate modalities that would help the Ministry engage with the Finance Ministry such that the larger segment of them would qualify for the fund.

Mr. Divine Owusu- Ansah, World Bank Project Coordinator of the Tourism Ministry, said for practitioners to be qualified to apply for the package, they must satisfy certain requirements. "Amongst other things, the applicant must be a Ghanaian, registered with the Registrar- General's Department, and must also register with the Ghana Tourism Authority", he noted.

President of the Ghana Association of the Visual Artists, Nana Atuo Owouhene Achampong appealed to the Minister, to get a technical team to look into the suitable mechanism for practitioners to qualify for the package offered by the government to the industry.

He expressed appreciation to the government and the Sector Minister for their relentless commitment to turn the economic fortunes of Ghana's Tourism industry.