Opportunities in Tourism, Arts and Culture are huge – Deputy Minister designate

Dr. Ziblim Bari Iddi, Deputy Minister designate for Tourism, Arts and Culture believes that there are opportunities that the Ministry can harness to make the arts, culture and tourism industry very robust.

Speaking with Kojo Preko Dankwa on Kasapa Entertainment, Saturday, the Political Science lecturer indicated that though as a developing country there are challenges, yet the avenues in the tourism, Arts and culture industry is huge and if the right mechanisms are used, the benefits will be for.

“As a developing country we’ve our own challenges but I’m one person who believes that whenever you’ve challenges you also have opportunities and I think that the opportunities are abound for us to explore and understand the contents of tourism, culture and creative arts in the country.

“And I’m even more excited that I’ve a minister, Madam Catherine Afeku who is just like myself, travelled all over the world and we’re excited about the partnership that she’s got to use to turn things around as far as the challenges that confronts Tourism, creative art industry. We don’t want to dwell much on the challenges because the opportunities are so much… we’ve young talents and old talents who are still around and ready to mentor the young talents, we’ve several places that we can develop into very attractive tourist centers, that we bring more and more people to Ghana and so as a developing country we’ve our challenges but we’re particular about exploring the opportunities to promote Tourism, culture and creative arts.”

When asked if he loves music, Dr. Iddi said, “Of course Yes, I’m very sure there’s any human being who doesn’t love music… growing up, I was a great fan of Reggae especially with Bob Marley and others, RnB. I like the young talent we’ve in Ghana and we’ve to invest more into the art industry, we going to promote more of such talents to become international stars.”

He also added that more young talents should be groomed to also get the exposure as other artistes like Kwabena Kwabena, Sarkodie to promote them.

“I enjoy the likes of Kwabena Kwabena, Sarkodie and others and will push for the young talents to get same exposure as well to help promote their good works.”

Speaking about the movie industry, the Member of Parliament for Gushegu disclosed that right system to help the industry must be put in place to sustain the film work.

The Member of Parliament for Gusheigu in the Northern region was among the 54 names released by the President, on Wednesday, March 15, 2017, to Parliament for approval as Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers.

Hon. Dr. Ziblim Barri Iddi holds Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (International Relations and Comparative Politics) from Clark Atlanta University, Masters in International Affairs and Development (MIAD), Clark Atlanta University and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, University of Ghana.

He will assist Honourable Catherine Afeku with stable policy environment for effective mainstreaming of Ghanaian culture into all aspects of national life and to ensure the strong emergence of a vibrant creative economy to improve and advance the tourism industry.