The Youth, Sports and Culture Committee of Parliament on Monday, November 02, 2020, hosted sections of the creative arts community.
The meeting was to seek inputs into the Creative Arts Bill which is currently being considered by Parliament.
Chairman of the Committee, Alex Kofi Agyekum and the Ranking Member, Kobina Mensah Woyome, as well as other industry players, expressed their opinions about the current state of the Bill.
“[There have been] one or two concerns by the Ghana Cultural Forum. They’ve tabled it and I have asked that they meet among themselves and actually iron out those nitty-gritty areas,” Alex Kofi Agyekum told Citi News.
According to Kobina Mensah Woyome, they “would have thought that maybe some speed would have been brought to bear and some work on the Bill would have taken place maybe earlier with all stakeholders coming on board. As I speak to you now there is that perception of some crack [within the leadership of the beneficiary groups] but then I think they are coming together now to see how we can resolve it.”
Actress Akofa Edjeani Asiedu also intimated that meeting the government on issues like this is a way to make sure that the industry is viable so it consequently creates the GDP that is needed for the economy of Ghana.
“Now everybody is talking about the creative industry. UNESCO is talking about it because they have realised that the creative economy is one of the biggest that we can tap into,” he noted.
Also present at the meeting were the President of the Creative Arts Council, Mark Okraku Mante, Chairman of the National Film Authority, David Dontoh, Director of Communications and Special Projects of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Ahuma Bosco Ocansey, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), Abraham Adjatey, among others.
A few weeks ago, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng Gyasi disclosed that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, had directed that the bill be treated with some urgency so it is passed into law before the end of his tenure.
“The President has told the Majority Leader in Parliament that no matter what it would take, this Bill has to be passed into law before the end of the tenure of this Parliament, even if the Bill would be passed under a certificate of urgency, it must be passed into law”, the Minister said on Okay FM.
The Creative Arts Bill, when passed into law, will provide the legal and institutional framework to promote the Creative Arts industry and be the basis of establishing the Creative Arts Fund to provide financial support for the sector.
The passage of the Creative Arts Bill into law was part of the promises made by the New Patriotic Party in their 2016 manifesto.