Ivor Agyeman-Duah, a writer, curator and technical advisor to the Asanteman Council is calling for more resources to be allocated to the arts and culture sector of the economy.
According to Agyeman-Duah, this will help Ghana to receive the necessary revenues for the country’s development.
He said the fact that more resources are allocated to tourism development, to the detriment of the arts and culture sector, “is a problem”.
Speaking with Nana Yaa Mensah on Sunday Night on Asaase 99.5, Agyemen-Duah said there is a need to rectify this anomaly and push more resources into arts and culture to make them drivers of growth for Ghana.
He also urged public officials for tourism, the arts and culture not to neglect cultural monuments across the country’s regions.
“This country is blessed in many ways. Naturally every region has something that is unique that we can add value to …
“I think the investments in culture, heritage business, heritage economics, are very low. If you look at the patterns of budget allocations given to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and if you look at the portion that gets to monuments for instance museum management it’s very small.
“The fact that we’ve made tourism bigger than arts and culture, for me, it’s a problem …” he said.
“Big fan”
Agyeman-Duah confessed that he is a huge admirer of British cultural institutions.
“I’m a big fan of British cultural institutions and I’m very impressed with the way that architecture of that institution is: what goes into it, what is invested in it and what comes out of that investment.
“If you have a country like that whose revenues, 30% to 40%, is culturally based, then you must definitely understand that the architectural institution cannot be ruined.
“You look that and say that we have some of these elements, within us, amongst us. How do we transform this into bigger patterns and make them drivers of growth?”
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