Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture must speed up - Gasmilla

Musician Gasmilla is urging the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture to make itself more useful by addressing the needs of the industry.

The artiste opines that the ministry's performance is below par. The seeming snail pace that characterizes the ministry's attempts to solve issues affecting the sector, Gasmilla asserts, ought to be eschewed.

He is of the view that there is an urgent need for the ministry to expedite action in the execution of its duties.

"The ministry is more political. I don't think it has really helped our people," he comments in an interview on Onua FM. "To be honest, I think they could do more. If indeed they want to help musicians, then I think they need to speed up because there is so much they can do for the musician associations."

Gasmilla, known to have performed the monster hit song 'Telemo' in 2015, believes the creative sector is broad hence, should be detached from tourism and culture.

He says: "Creative arts as a body has to be by itself. There are so many things about creative arts so I don't think it has to be added to tourism. I think it should be decoupled. Aside from that, they should invest."

The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture was renamed in 2017 through Executive Instrument E.I28 Civil Service (Ministries) Instrument, by His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo to replace the then Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Creative Arts.

The Ministry’s policy directive is to provide a firm, stable policy environment for effective mainstreaming of Ghanaian arts and culture into all aspects of national life. This, it is believed, will help in ensuring the emergence of a strong, vibrant and creative environment that would help improve and advance the Tourism, Arts, and Culture industry in Ghana.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Awal Mohammed, a former Minister for Business Development has been nominated as the minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture. If he passes vetting, he would take over from Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi who doubled as the Member of Parliament for Prestea Huni-Valley but lost her seat in the December polls.