World Bank pumps $50 million into Creative Arts Ministry

The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Catherine Afeku has disclosed that the World Bank has approved an amount of 50 Million Dollars to support Ghana’s Arts and Culture sector under the Ghana Tourism, Art & Culture Sector Improvement Project.

She said this when she took her turn at the Meet the Press series organized by the Information Ministry to highlight projected plans for the sector.

The project, according to the minister, aims at strengthening institutions and stakeholders, improving sector productivity for job creation, empowering women and youth across all sectors along the creative arts and culture value chain as well as enhancement of overall domestic or foreign tourist experience.

“From the time you disembark from the airport through the immigration to the time you join a taxi to get to your hotel to visit a site, to return to your country, the result should be repeated experience. That visitor must return. And that value chain is what we are getting this support among others to ensure that they (Tourists) do not leave with the bad taste in their mouth,” she added.

She said the grant will be monitored by the Bank and the Finance Ministry, and underscored the importance of the grant which she said was the first of its kind in the industry, adding it will help enhance the overall Domestic Tourism service.

Madam Afeku also indicated that the Ministry is to develop a database to be able to keep track of all organizations that fall directly under the Creative Art sector.

She continued that: “there are multiplicity of domains including the beauticians, the sculptors, the artists, the dancers, the bead makers” and host of others that need to “get a directorate, a database, a real account” and be identified and work with her ministry to move the Creative Industry forward.