The Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, on Tuesday said government was set to renovate all cultural centres across the country starting with five of them next year.
He said this would help Ghanaians express their cultural identity wherever they found themselves and serve as a source of revenue for the country.
Dr Awal, inaugurating the Governing Board of the National Commission on Culture (NCC), in Accra, said “Without these centres we cannot clearly express our cultural identity and our tourism drive in this country would not yield the desired results.”
He said the board was a strategic board because culture was the root of everything done in this country, but to a larger extent, Ghanaian culture had been taken over by foreign cultures, saying Ghana was gradually losing its cultural fabric, and the youth have little idea about their culture and it was important to change that trend.
The sector Minister tasked the Board to come up with a cultural policy by June next year, in which all the elements of Ghanaian cultural identity would be identified to promote the Ghanaian identity.
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“Find a team that can give us a cultural policy so that by the middle of next year we would be driving a policy that can make Ghana big and ensure that the young generation do not forget their roots, because those who forget their roots are a lost people,” he added.
Dr Awal noted that culture was at the heart of whatever development the President wanted to do, and the “Ghana Beyond Aid” could not be achieved without a culture that brings all together.
He urged the board to also develop a profitable model that could make culture in this country very profitable, because the state could not provide for all institutions in the country, thus they must find ways to make enough money to complement government’s efforts.
Osagyefo Kwame Akonu X, on behalf of the Board members, expressed appreciation to the President for nominating them to serve on the Board and to serve the people of Ghana, and assured that together they would work hard to deliver on their mandate, to promote and preserve the very rich culture of the Ghanaian people.
Members of the Board include Dr Awal, Madam Janet Edna Nyame, Madam Gifty Twum-Ampofo, Madam Fatima Abubakar, Madam Dzifa Kemevor, Osgyefo Kwame Akonu X, Dr Lawyer Christine O. Asare, Mr Kwaku T. Danso-Misa, Madam Shirley Nana Akua Frimpong-Manso, Sheikh Zakaria M. Seebaway, Mr Alex Lucky Mensah, Mr Felix Otis Tsibo-Darko and Mr Issiah Kwadwo Ampong.