Musicians Want Government Intervention

Stakeholders in the music industry, acknowledging the various difficulties affecting them have called on Government to help put effective structures in place to build and grow the sector.

At the 2011 MTN Ghana Music Awards Forum in Accra, stakeholders emphasized that the creative industry needed to be adequately projected onto the international scene, adding that this called for government help and support.

The forum, which was under the theme ‘Help Grow our Music – The Role of the State, Media, Financial Institutions, Artistes, Producers and Marketers, was heavily attended by several industry professionals, musicians, government representatives and the media.

The chairperson for the forum, Hanna Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, assured that the government had put in place modalities that would ensure that the creative industry was duly projected to be where it deserved to be.

She therefore called for brain storming and consensus building on the possibility of musicians taking advantage of the digital platform where musicians got to sell and reap benefits from their works online (internet).

The chairman of the National Media Commission, Ambassador Kabral Blay Amihere, in his address, said musicians offered far better branding of the nation than official emissaries posted to represent the nation in foreign lands. He called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to put in place a programme that would occasionally send a crop of Ghanaian musicians to go and perform abroad for the Ghanaian community and outsiders in general.

He also called for a united musician’s body; a tool he said would aid and promote their wellbeing.

James Agyenim Boateng, Deputy Minister of Tourism, also entreated radio stations to make it a point to devote a lot more of their airtime to promoting Ghanaian music.

The event was witnessed by notable personalities in the industry including Theresa Ayoade, CEO of Charter House (Organisers of the Ghana Music Awards); Diana Hopson, Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) President; George Aleinu of the National Communications Authority and musicians like No Tribe, Samini Kwabena Kwabena and Richie.