In the past decade, the creative arts in Ghana

Moviegoers/watchers have been forced to result in patronising movies from Nigeria and elsewhere as their main source of movie entertainment.

Clearly, the major stakeholders of the Movie industry in Ghana have been busy over the past couple of years trying to revive the industry with meetings upon meetings with the Ghana Tourism Board, Musiga – <Music Union of Ghana>, Government of Ghana, and even the Ghana Police Service all in a bid to try to create a working or workable template that can be used to reel investors able to help revive the industry.

Now, many of today’s media start-ups that have mushroomed onto the media space like TIKTOK, Instagram, Snapchat, etc all of which allow short skits have also contributed to the lack of speed in reviving the film industry in Ghana since many of the local artists are also now growing their followership through these other social media outlets, which is also a source of revenue for them in this dry movie season they are experiencing.

Behind all this, is a thriving short movies/TV series industry which in fact is also growing new talents in the Creative Arts space, notably the ACCRA MEDIC, HAIR SALON, MASTER AND THREE MAIDS, etc just to name a few, all of which are doing extremely well on Ghanaian Television.

Let’s also not discard the fact that “The Year of Return” which is a government Ministry of Tourism initiative to attract the Diasporans community to the various economic sectors of the country has helped the creative arts space a lot.

This push is now seeing powerhouses like Netflix, all looking critically at the Movie industry in Ghana and having a resident Talent Hunt positioned in the country to collaborate with local movie production houses for the production of Local Ghanaian movies that can also be sold onto the international market.

Ghanaians have a story to tell and the movie industry is the vehicle that can tell the Ghanaian story to the world, so until the industry shakes up its girdle to tell the Ghanaian story it would continue to remain untold.

Ghana, with its vibrant youth population, is so talent filled that the creative arts space is literally a gold mine, and international movie houses have their eyes on the gold ready to help themselves soon as the right stakeholders are able to position themselves for partnerships/collaboration.

The year 2023 started with an announcement by the producers of GIRLS TRIP 2  (an American movie) that the sequel would be shot in Ghana. My humble opinion would be a good catalyst to help revive the industry.  Ghana as a country has great potentials and Ghanaians have to become proactive enough to make the creative arts the vibrant industry it once was.

Let me hear your views and opinions about the above article through the comment section and look out for more updates in this space.