Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal
The acting Bono Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture (CNC), Mr Seidu Iddrisu Yeboah, says the creative arts industry has huge economic prospects for wealth creation and poverty reduction.
According to him, huge investments into weaving and basketry would not only widen the nation’s foreign exchange earnings but create thousands of jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, Mr Yeboah said the CNC had prioritised weaving and basketry to drive the youth and attract both local and foreign investments.
In that regard and many others, he said, the centre had recruited, trained and would soon deploy and station personnel at the various districts and municipalities in the region, saying “we are mobilising basic logistics for them to move.”
They would collaborate with traditional authorities, help ignite the dying Ghanaian cultural heritages, and communal labour spirit as well, to push community development.
Culture, Mr Yeboah explained, was not a fetish, but rather represented the true identity and dignity of the people, and asked Ghanaians to uphold, defend and preserve the nation’s cultural heritage.
He said the centre would ensure effective collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to push and strengthen the creative arts industry and put a spotlight on culture in basic schools.
This would greatly make the younger generation well informed, accept, build and promote the Ghanaian culture.