Tourism minister calls for strengthening of artistes association

Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie, Minister of Tourism and Culture, has called on the new selected executive of the Artistes Association of The Gambia to work towards strengthening their associations, making them more financially viable, administratively responsive and transparent.

The Tourism minister was speaking on Thursday on the occasion of the inaugural meeting of the newly constituted artistes associations for The Gambia collecting society.

She said the ceremony can be called a milestone in the annals of Gambian arts and culture simply because, for the first time, Gambian artistes have come together in a fully fledged organization as required by the Copyright Act 2004, ready to be constituted into a collecting society, a CMO for The Gambia.

“The road which has led us has been challenging but interesting,” she said, adding that the various stages of the journey include the enactment of a new copyright law by government in 2004, the setting up of a copyright office under the NCAC in 2008, various stakeholders meetings and workshops.

Throughout this work, we have counted on the support of you the stakeholders, international organization like WIPO and indeed government, she said.

Minister Jobe-Njie therefore called on the executive to find ways and means to raise funds, organize programmes to sensitise their membership, recruit more members and set up offices to make associations accessible.