Accra, Nov 16, GNA - Creative artistes in the country have initiated steps that will help secure their investments in the creative industry at all levels.

Speaking on behalf of the artistes at a workshop in Accra, Ms. Korkor Amarteifio, Executive Director of the Institute of Music Development said "we are tired of being back benchers in the management of the creative industries - we are going to take charge of affairs to secure our industry and our interest."

The Workshop was jointly organised by the Ghana Association of Phonographic Industries (GAPI) and the Ministry of Culture and Chieftaincy Affairs, with support from the Business Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund. It was intended for core players in the creative industries, including musicians, artists and actors to dialogue with policymakers, and come out with clear proposals to inform the review of the National Cultural Policy into a document friendly to the creative industries.

Other issues discussed included how to make a good proposal for a Copyright Investment Bank (CIB) to ensure sustainable long-term funding for creative works, how to digitalise more of Ghana's music and sell them through special online portals, to generate funds for individual musicians among other issues.

Ms. Amarteifio noted that the current deplorable state of creative arts in the country was because the trade did not feature in the national development planning process.

She noted that creative arts had been made peripheral and as a result, major national activities in the field were left in the hands of civil servants, rather than the core industry players to manage.

Ms Amarteifio said because civil servants lacked understanding of the real value and importance of the creative arts, they did not place the required premium on it and that largely contributed to the current state of affairs.

"We are tired of being poor, we are tired of being back benchers, we are tired of always having to go to donors for funds to support our industry - it is time we manage our own affairs and got our share of the national cake," she said.

As a first step, core players in the industries had constituted the Foundation for Creative Industries (FCI), which is an interim measure towards the formation of a more substantive Creative Industries Council

Ms Amarteifio said the foundation would continue to play an advocacy role to ensure that the necessary inputs were made into the policies of the various ministries that deal directly with creative industries, particularly the ministries of culture, education, trade and justice.

She said the Attorney-General's Department was willing to help create the legal environment to support the new regime being proposed, adding that, the Ministry of Trade had also receive a sum of $100 million to assist small and medium scale enterprises, including the creative industries.

"We are collating data on the categories of creative industries in the country, how many of them and what contribution they make into the economy," she said.

Dr. Dale Rachmeller, BUSAC Fund Manager assured players in the creative industries of BUSAC's continued support in the area of advocacy to influence national policy in a way that would ensure the betterment of life for the core industry players.

He said so far, BUSAC had given 360 grants in Ghana and would continue to support business advocacy for five more years with support by the donors.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture Affair, Mr. Alexander Asum- Ahensah praised GAPI for initiating the policy review and pledged his support to the proposed changes to make the policy friendly to the creative industries.

He urged players in the industry to collate data on the industry and also to maintain a unified front, saying that government and development partners preferred to deal with a unified rather than disjointed body, as is the case with the creative industries.

Mr. Francis Twum, Project Coordinator for GAPI noted that creative industries generated at least $200 million into the Ghanaian economy every year, but the core industry players got just about 20 per cent of that money, whiles the greater chunk went to pirates and other non-core persons. He expressed the hope that the review of the National Cultural Policy would set the tone for the change.