Idikoko
Augustine Abbey, a veteran actor and president of Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), has lauded the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture over its commitment to making sure that the Ghana Film Law is operationalised.
The Film Law, which is to regulate the film industry, among other objectives, was passed by ex-President John Mahama in 2016, months before he handed over to President Nana Akufo-Addo.
The current government has been engaging stakeholders in the film industry at various levels to operationalise the law.
In interview with NEWS-ONE on Thursday at the launch of Ghana International Film Week in Accra, Augustine Abbey (Idikoko) expressed his enthusiasm with how the current the Minister of Tourism Arts & Culture, Catherine Afeku, and her team are handling affairs with regard to the Film Law.
“You know our industry is taking a nosedive and our main is to bring it back so our members can also be happy. We used to have a lucrative industry or market but a whole lot of factors brought the industry down,” he revealed.
“In other jurisdiction, they have governments come in to assist the industry and that is why we are asking for the right legislations in place. For instance, if we have the Broadcasting Act where our TV operators will be forced by law to make sure that 70 percent of their content is local. That is what we asking for.
We are also asking for a Legislative Instrument (LI) to the Film Law that has been passed in 2016. We asking that there should be an LI which would operationalise the Film Act and we are happy that the sector minister is assisting in that direction,” Idikoko stated.
He added that a task force has been sent to the Volta Region to start work on operationalising the law and he is extremely happy about it.
“We previously had issues with government but now I’m beginning to see that there are prospects. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Government is now showing more interest. The Ho meeting is for the task force to look at the act and its input with the right lawyers to make sure that the LI is obtained for us to be able to operationalise the act. The ministry is seeing to it and supporting this agenda, and for me, I think that they are doing well. That’s a step in the right direction but we are expecting more because our industry has become very fragile,” he concluded.