The Spanish Embassy in Accra is partnering with the Centre for National Culture (CNC) to promote, showcase and fetch international market for Ghana’s creative arts industry.
Bernice Deh-Kumah, a deputy director in-charge of programmes of the CNC, disclosed that the partnership would take effect in early 2019.
Interacting with district and municipal cultural officers and staff of the CNC in the Brong-Ahafo Region on Monday in Sunyani, she said the creative and visual arts sector has enormous economic potentials to increase the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
Mrs. Deh-Kumah was accompanied by Janet Edna Nyame, the executive director of the National Commission on Culture (NCC), who was on a two-day working visit to the Brong-Ahafo Region to acquaint herself with the state of the CNC.
As part of the visit, the executive director and her entourage were expected to interact with the members of the Sunyani Traditional Council.
Mrs. Deh-Kumah explained that the CNC has introduced a training programme to promote women in the creative arts industry to enable them to produce standard products that would meet the international market standards.
Under the programme, the beneficiary women (staff of the CNC) would be trained on proper packaging, export and marketing strategies for their products.
She advised the district and municipal officers of the CNC to be innovative and identify, organise and mobilise the artistic resources of the region and develop the commercial potentials of such resources.
Madam Nyame, on her part, charged the officers to pursue activities aimed at contributing to the holistic development of national culture and the arts.
She said the NCC was collaborating with the University of Cape Coast (UCC) to introduce certificate programme for staff of the commission to have the opportunity to upgrade themselves professionally and announced that the commission was working hard to raise funds to continue and complete some theatre projects in the region that have been stalled for some years now.
Madam Nyame cautioned the officers against partisan politics and asked them to promote team work and collaborate with one another in initiating programmes that would promote the artistic industry.