Hon Catherine Afeku
Stakeholders in the creative arts industry in the Western Region have thrown their unflinching support behind Hon Catherine Afeku, Member of Parliament (MP) for Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Constituency, who has been nominated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to head the Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Ministry.
They said, “We congratulate Hon Afeku and we believe that she has the capabilities to deliver on the promise of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to revitalise the creative arts industry.”
They indicated that they were enthused about the decision of the current New Patriotic government to establish a division of the High Court which would deal with all matters relating to intellectual property rights.
Addressing a press conference, the President of the Creative Arts Group, Charles Egyir, mentioned that the members of the group had no doubt that the NPP would formulate policies that would help boost tourism to become a major revenue generating sector.
“We understand the government will also set up an additional Copyright Office in Tamale to cater for our colleagues in the northern sector in addition to those in Accra and Kumasi,” revealed.
Charles Egyir continued… “This is a welcome news and we call on all Ghanaians, especially those in the industry, to support the incoming to succeed in her new office if approved by parliament”.
He, however, appealed to the minister designate to see to the completion of a Western regional theatre at Fijai near Sekondi which was started long ago but had allegedly been abandoned by successive governments.
Meanwhile, Hon Afeku has affirmed her commitment to making the establishment of a national standard theatre in Sekondi-Takoradi as promised by the NPP government a major priority.
Hon Catherine Afeku stated that the promise by the NPP to establish modern theatres in the other regions of Ghana beginning with Takoradi would be an area of priority, especially beginning with her home region.
She revealed her determination to lobby for investors to quickly invest into the project after her vetting, and was optimistic of seeing to the establishment of three or four theatres in her tenure, with Takoradi being her first priority.
“After my vetting, I will come out with an aggressive marketing strategy that will revive tourism, culture and creative arts because that is what the advanced countries are doing; they invest so much to sell their countries culture to the world.
“For Ghana, our uniqueness is our culture, just like what we saw when Otumfuo’s mother passed away, we will have people coming from outside the world to celebrate festivals like Akwesidae, Kundum and the others, they will buy stuffs and also visit tourist sites,” she stated.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi