President Nana Akuffo Addo on the 17th of January marked his one year in office and further had a media encounter where he invited media personnel from across the country which we must emphasize that it was strictly by invitation.
FOCAP wants to congratulate the team of organisers for the first time inviting some Creative Industry journalist to attend. FOCAP fervently hopes that in subsequent encounters more Creative Industry journalists would have the opportunity to attend.
FOCAP monitored with keen interest and attention to the media encounter which had the President open the floor with a speech which we believe were the cardinal points of his administration in the last one year, it indeed covered the most critical, pertinent and serious issues within his one year in office. FOCAP sees the speech as the administration’s major achievements chalked under one year and some other challenges currently facing the government.
Clearly, FOCAP believes there was a serious deficiency within the priorities The President set out to brief the media and largely the nation. As part of the President’s speech, areas such as Unemployment, Agriculture, Independent Prosecutor and others were touched on by the President but unfortunately, Creative Arts was not part of the one-year achievements chalked.
FOCAP is of the view that clearly the Creative Industry is not and has not been one of the priorities of this government for the past one year. Early this year, FOCAP released a press statement that the budget which was read by the finance minister was Anti Creative Art because the budget could not clearly define our role, investment and programmes to be rolled out and this has been cemented by The President’s speech.
FOCAP still believes the Creative Industry has a lot to offer Ghana’s GDP and we believe it is the cure to Ghana’s unemployment problem. It’s very disappointing that such a sector would be so ignored by a government that prides itself in helping the private sector. The Musician’s Union of Ghana (Musiga) in its 2005 report, after a thorough research into the music industry alone proved that about 27,000 are currently employed in the music industry and contributes about 0.25% to GDP not to talk of other sectors under the Creative Industry such as Movies, Fine Arts, Fashion and some many more. Research can help identify the challenges in the area of unemployment and this can be solved largely from the Creative Industry.
FOCAP believes that the passing of the Creative Art Council bill, Appointment of Board Members of National Commission on Culture (NCC), Appointment of an Executive Director for the set up the National Film Authority as stated in Film Act 935 and the enforcement of the Cultural Policy of 2004 are very integral to the development of the Creative Arts Industry.
FOCAP believes the Minister of Tourism Arts and Culture and her team should work extra hard to bridge the gap in terms of government priorities when it comes to the Creative Arts Industry.
FOCAP finds it very disappointing and shameful to say the least that the Creative Arts Industry is being overlooked and we believe it would be in good spirit for the Minister of Tourism Arts and Culture to give a full overview of the Tourism and Creative Art Industries on the back of what The President’s media encounter for the sector stakeholders.
Long Live FOCAP!
Long Live Ghana!!
Long live The Creative Arts Industry!!
Kojo Preko Dankwa Mel Kwesi Davis Enoch Agyapong
Convener Convener Convener
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