Rikki Stein
‘It Was A Hard Decision To Withdraw AFRIMA From Ghana’
Organisers of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) have withdrawn their hosting rights from Ghana for the 2019 and 2020 editions of the award.
This is because Ghana could not meet the financial and contractual obligations it agreed on July 12, 2018, to host the event.
Both parties previously agreed to host the AFRIMA for three consecutive years (from 2018 to 2020) in Ghana, to which the 2018 edition was held in Accra from November 21 to 24.
A press statement by the international committee of the AFRIMA on Wednesday to announce the withdrawal described Ghana’s performance on the contract during the 2018 event as “disappointing.”
It said the decision to withdraw from Ghana “was reached on Monday, July 15 after several months of meetings and consultations with relevant stakeholders to remedy the situation with the expectation that Ghana would provide concrete assurances and guarantees to discharge its contractual obligations for hosting the 2019 and 2020 editions of AFRIMA.”
According to the International Advisor of AFRIMA, Rikki Stein, “It was a hard decision for us to withdraw the awards hosting rights for the next two years (2019 and 2020 editions) from Ghana. As an awards owned for the African people, it is structured to travel around the continent giving the people the true African experience. We have some fond memories of our time in Ghana immersing ourselves in the lifestyle and music and we have formed great friendships among the Ghanaian people.”
“We look forward to returning to Ghana at a more opportune time. However, we cannot afford to compromise the standard of the laudable vision of AFRIMA to create a truly African brand that connects Africans and build the equity of Africa. The situation faced in Ghana has the potential to erode the goodwill and giant strides we have achieved in Africa through the awards,” he added.
“Our concerns are genuine and worrying. We must see a commitment from the host country government to secure suitable venues in advance for holding the AFRIMA Awards ceremony and events to provide suitable hotel accommodation in advance for nominees, artistes and guests of the awards and to provide and process visas-on-arrival in advance and in good time for guests, nominees, artistes, contractors and other relevant stakeholders attending the awards. If these are not in place, then we have a recipe for disaster on our hands,” he stated.
Prior to the announcement, Barbara Oteng Gyase, Minister for Tourism, Arts & Culture, in early July had already disclosed that Ghana could not continue to host AFRIMA for three consecutive years because of unsuccessful collaboration from players in Ghana’s creative arts industry.
The withdrawal, she believed, would benefit the creative arts industry.