A former Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts says not much is being done by her successor in the sector.
To Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, her tenure witnessed tremendous growth in the sector something she claimed cannot be said for the current administration.
The former Minister joins the bandwagon of persons who have criticised the current minister of the sector, Catherine Afeku for not doing much for the Tourism, Arts and Culture sector.
Last week, former Deputy CEO of Ghana Tourism Development Company (GTDC), Akua Blakofe, wondered what has happened to the numerous promises made by Catherine Afeku when she assumed office as Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture.
According to Oheneba Akua Manfo, popularly known as Akua Blakofe, there is absolutely nothing going on.
“I will say they have four years. I have not seen much yet but I hope that in the next two years they will be able to catch up. There isn’t much I can speak about…” Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare said in an exclusive interview with Naa Ashorkor on Showbiz A-Z on Saturday.
“… I keep on saying the things that we did that have not been continued but maybe when we come back in 2021, we will be able to do a proper assessment of what is happening,” she added.
Asked some of her key achievements during her tenure as the ministry, she said, “The Film Act was passed. You know from Kwame Nkrumah’s time nothing had been done to the film law and you also know that a lot of things had gone on in the industry that needed a review of that law, happily under our tenure, that Film Act saw the light of day.”
Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare also mentioned the Marine Drive Project - a project she said was part of former President John Mahama’s quest to keep the country’s beaches clean.
According to her, the land stretching from Osu Castle to Baden Powell was secured “to be serviced and given out for people to do hotels, theme parks, children playgrounds,” for the Marine Drive Project.
She noted that they had done the necessary works – including getting consultants and a contractor – but for the change in government, they were going to cut the sod for work to start.
“We set up a fund for the film industry, not only did we set up a fund, we actually put in money and the money was actually disbursed to beneficiaries. Creative arts fund and monies were given to Culture Forum to disburse. We disbursed ?1 million and we were supposed to give them another ?1 million,” the former Minister added as one of their achievements.
She also said apart from organising Homofest and Ghana Carnival, they started regional consultations to the creative arts bill which they had plans working to get it into an act.
A branding conference, this conference, she noted, gave Ghana a lot of benefits including Ghana being elected to the executive committee to World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
Through the UNWTO, Ghana got funds to rehabilitate Nzulezu. “If you go to Nzulezu, you will see that for the first time, it has toilet facilities.”
Source: JFM/Ghana
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