Bolgatanga-Ghana, Nov. 19 GNA – An eight-month project dubbed: “Cultural Music Project”, aimed at building and providing digital marketing skills to local cultural musicians, enhancing performance and unearth potentials, has been launched in the Upper East Region.
It is being spearheaded by the Restorative Seed Society (RSS), a non-government organisation based in the Upper East Region, with funding support from KGL Foundation.
The project is to provide digital marketing training for about 30 young men and women from Bolgatanga Municipal, Bongo and Nabdam Districts.
The project is also expected to empower the beneficiaries to be hooked onto the digital world to market their cultural talents and that of the region to both the local and international markets.
Furthermore, it would provide entrepreneurship training and Business Support Services to the Cultural Musicians in the area.
In a speech read on his behalf at a stakeholder meeting held at Bolgatanga, Mr. Hillary Adongo, the Executive Director, RSS, said Cultural Music when given the needed attention and support to enhance its growth could boost the local economy.
“The sector needs more investment to unlock its potential to pave the way for it to contribute its quota effectively to national development.
“The sector, when given the necessary support has the potential of generating employment for the teaming youth who are looking for employment,” the Executive Director stressed.
The forum, which attracted stakeholders made up of Directors from the Department of Culture, the National Youth Authority, Ghana Youth Employment Agency, Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) and the media was aimed at briefing the participants about the project implementation and to seek input from them on how to complement the project effectively to achieve positive results.
The stakeholders expressed their readiness to support the implementation of the project and mentioned some of the challenges confronting Cultural Musicians in the region.
They said lack of producers, violation of the copyright laws and the failure of most radio stations to log in the songs of musicians to generate income for the Musician were major challenges in the music industry in the region.
Mr Richard Abanga, the Upper East Regional Chairman of MUSIGA, stated that comparatively the Upper East Region was one of the regions that was well endowed with cultural musicians and reiterated that the major problem confronting them was lack of producers to help push them forward.
Mr Patrick Anamoo, the Facilitator of the Programme, who expressed happiness about the rich input made by the participants for the project implementation, gave the assurance that the project would always rely on them as major implementing partners.