Government intervention welcome news

Showbiz is gladdened by the assurance given by President Akufo-Addo that he will not relegate the country’s film industry to the background. The president, in a speech read on his behalf by Ambassador Ayikoi Otoo, High Commissioner to Canada, at ‘Ghana 60 Years On Film Summit’ said, “Government is still committed to the promises it made to the Tourism and Creative Arts industry in the New Patriotic Party manifesto ahead of the 2016 general elections.

”As Showbiz pointed out in our editorial column barely a week ago, the Ghanaian film industry is in a poor state and is currently at the point of death. It is good then that the President has also realised this and is poised to take steps to remedy the situation. Lack of funding, lack of education, lack of distribution networks, lack of proper regulation of foreign content on local TV among others have all contributed to the state of the industry.

The poor state of the film industry should be of concern to all and should be considered a national crisis. As it stands now there are numerous Ghanaians who are currently unemployed when they could have been gainfully put to use as cameramen, script writers, make-up artistes or any of the other auxiliary services that form part of the industry.

Showbiz hopes the assurances of the President are not one of the many talk shops the industry has been subjected to in times past. For far too long, politicians in the country have only courted the services of people in the entertainment industry during campaign seasons only to completely forget about them once they are in office.
Showbiz prays this will not be one of those situations and the film industry will finally get the attention it deserves.