As part of their 2020 manifesto promises, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has stated that they will create a digital platform to aid creatives in Ghana.
This was made known during the party’s Manifesto Launch at Cape Coast on Saturday, August 22, 2020, by the Acting Director of the National Folklore Board, Nana Adjoa Adobea Asante.
“We will build a digital platform for artists to make their products available for the global market,” she said.
In 2018 a similar attempt was made by the government to provide a digital platform to market Ghanaian music and movie.
Agya Koo TV and Lumba TV were launched as platforms to help promote movies and music from Ghana.
The former Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku, at a Meet the Press session at the Information Ministry, said the launch of the platforms was part of efforts to promote local content.
According to her, they were “in the business of placing Ghanaian content at the disposal of viewers throughout the world and the artistes are signed on to produce popular content, including already existing content, that will run as a series in the name of the artistes and it is already showing on most of the mobile phones.”
However, the two platforms of the initiative, have not been functional.
The marketability of creative arts products in recent times is mainly hinged on digital platforms. These platforms have proven to be very effective in reaching large audiences and maximizing profit for the creative.
So far platforms like Netflix, iTunes, Apple Music, YouTube, Aftown, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Boomplay, among others, have proven to be viable means of selling works of arts by entertainers.
Other promises made by the New Patriotic Party in their 2020 Manifesto are the construction of the remaining theatres after the construction of one in Koforidua, the provision of recording studios in Kumasi, Tema, Accra, and Takoradi, and the setting up the Creative Arts Fund.