Ministry For Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Created In Ghana Headed By Hon. Rashid Pelpuo But Socrate Sarfo & Others Reject…

The president has created a new ministry or minister-designate as he promised for the creative industry. Therefore, the creative industry is no longer under the umbrella of Chieftaincy and Culture. There is now a minister-designated to oversee or handle (you choose) the Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Ministry, Rashid Pelpuo.

Socrate Sarfo has expressed his disappointment saying they don’t need a scholar or lawyer to create confusion in the industry. He said Mr Pelpuo is not the right person to handle the creative industry business because the position needs someone who is in the industry.

Quoting him, “We as creative arts people are a bunch of delicate persons and if we are not handled well, it’s either we will confuse and frustrate you or you will confuse and frustrate us. So it’s about time that we get people who are in the industry to work for creative arts people; if you bring technocrats, lawyers, scholars, whatever, you will create confusion in the industry. In the end the government will not benefit from the idea and the purpose for which it has established the industry….We are very open, we know what we want, nobody can decide for us.”

I sincerely hope he was not talking about him being nominated for that position. As a ‘consumer’ of Ghana movies, I cannot say whether Mr Pelpuo is the right man or not. My issue is; I hope it is not another useless ministry to create a ‘job’ for somebody or to drain the coffers of the tax payer. If it is just not another ministry of bureaucracy, then we all welcome it. The Minister has got a lot of work to do, to improve the Creative Industry, Tourism and Culture.

The new Creative minister should take note of these things that needs to be changed or improved in the Creative Industry. (I don’t have a clue about Culture and Tourism)

• Every/any money meant for the Tourism, Culture and Creative Industry should be used to that effect (wishful thinking?)

• There should be a proper Actors Guild in place. Any actor or actress who wants to be recognised in the movie and theatre industry should be a member.

• More money should be pumped into the industry, to assist the struggling producers to churn out good quality movies.

• Charity begins at home, therefore, Drama School, NAFTI students should be assisted to go to film festivals, then they can learn different and diverse ways of film making.

• The Film Regulatory Board/Censorship Board should be assessed thoroughly. It doesn’t look like they know how to censor movies. Porn movies should be classified as porn then the consumer know what he/she is getting.

• Deal with piracy then producers will have confidence in the Ghanaian market.

The vetting committee should also take note. There is more to add to the list above!

Do you think this new segment of Ministry created make any significant in the Creative Arts Industry?