The Creative Arts Bill has been presented to Cabinet for consideration.
The Bill, when passed into law, will serve as a legal instrument that will help in coordinating and regulating all the sects of creative arts.
The 2020 Budget Statement which was presented to Parliament on Wednesday, November 13, 2019, by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Attah mentioned that plans are advanced for the passage of the law.
“Mr Speaker, the Creative Arts Industry Bill is at Cabinet for consideration. The Act will amongst others establish the Creative Arts Fund and an Agency to promote the Industry. The Act will enable the government to organize the Creative Arts industry and create an enabling environment through direct and indirect support for practitioners and industry players to impact on national development,” it states.
In the 2016 Manifesto of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the party promised to pass the Creative Arts law to serve as an engine to drive the sector.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta while presenting the 2019 budget and financial statement of government to Parliament announced that the Bill was in Parliament for consideration and that its passage would also make room for the establishment of the Creative Arts Fund.
“Mr Speaker, the Creative Arts Industry Bill is now in Parliament for deliberation and passage into Law. The Creative Arts Fund is incorporated in the Bill to ensure the economic viability of the Creative Arts Sector in the economy,” he said at the time.
The President, Nana Akufo-Addo also told Parliament during the third State of the Nation address in February 2019 that government is focused on getting the law passed.
“We have worked to finalise the Creative Arts Bill, leading to the setting up of the Creative Arts Fund. For the first time, in 2018, Government provided support to the Creative Arts Council, and the Creative Arts Masterclass, to build the capacity of Creative Arts practitioners, has also commenced,” he noted.
But the assurance is yet to materialize.
In the meantime, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng Gyasi had promised stakeholder of the arts industry during the Creative Industry Forum a few weeks ago that the law would finally be passed in the first quarter of 2020.
