He was speaking at a day’s workshop held to update the members on modern trends in  the industry.   He noted that the arts and culture sector held enormous potential for job and  wealth creation and that was why more should therefore be done to support the sector to  grow.

Mr. Afrane said there could not be any doubt that given the needed attention and  stronger push by the government, it could substantially contribute to the national economy.  The expectation was that the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts would give priority and scale up the effort towards the development of the arts and crafts market, he added.

He indicated that Ghana’s artifacts, songs, films and literally works had now  become popular, internationally, and it was important to take full advantage of that.   To do this, he said, it would be necessary to aid the local artist and craftsman/woman to have better understanding of the intellectual property rights.

He called, not only for the passage of the creative arts bill into law, but deepening of  the conversation between government and private sector - to share ideas and form partnerships to move the industry forward.