Stakeholders brainstorm development of culture and arts

Officials from both the public and the private sectors Wednesday gathered at a hotel to discuss issues that could grow and develop the country’s culture and arts sector.

The day-long seminar was organised by the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) in collaboration with the Centre for Cultural and African Studies (CeCASt) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana.

It is part of a 36-month EU-ECOWAS Economic Partnership Agreement project which is being implemented in the English-speaking countries of West Africa.

Speaking on the occasion, Momodou Joof, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, said the seminar is a follow-up to the needs assessment for facilitating the development and growth of arts and culture sector held in September 2014.

Mr Joof said the key objective of the EU-funded project is to seek collaboration among regional stakeholders to raise awareness of the culture and entertainment sector.

The project also looks at the critical role that culture can play in the socio-economic development of the implementing countries, he added.

He explained that the seminar is for participants to deliberate and identify government measures which affect services or service providers in export markets to the EU.

Baba Ceesay, director general of the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC), said the forum was also designed to examine the development of culture and the arts sector under the EU-ECOWAS project.