The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, has welcomed an invitation from popular television presenter and actress, Naa Ashorkor, to participate in selected activities marking this year’s Teshie Homowo Festival.
Naa Ashorkor Mensah Doku called on the Minister to formally invite her to some of the major activities lined up for the festival, which commenced with a series of programmes organised by the Teshie Traditional Authorities and the Teshie Municipal Assembly.
The visit also provided an opportunity for Naa Ashorkor and the organisers to solicit support for the festival, recalling the Minister’s earlier statement in Parliament expressing her commitment to supporting festivals and cultural activities that contribute to the promotion of Ghana’s tourism and cultural heritage.
Naa Ashorkor explained that there were about eight major activities scheduled as part of this year’s celebrations and appealed to the Minister to be part of some of them.
Responding to the invitation, Hon. Gomashie expressed her delight at the prospect of joining the Teshie community in celebrating Homowo and indicated her willingness to participate in the activities, subject to her official schedule.
She, however, clarified that requests for financial or institutional support for festivals must follow the appropriate processes and explained that the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), which works directly with festivals and tourism-related activities, had already briefed her on the issue of support for the Teshie Homowo Festival which was mentioned in her submission to parliament.
She therefore advised the organisers to channel their formal request through the appropriate agency for consideration, noting that the Ministry itself does not operate as a direct funding source for individual festivals.
Hon. Gomashie further extended her support by offering to provide a letter that could assist the organisers in approaching private-sector institutions and other potential partners for support towards the successful organisation of the festival.
She emphasised the importance of collaboration between government, traditional authorities, local assemblies and the private sector in developing festivals into attractive cultural and tourism products.
The engagement therefore reinforced the Ministry’s commitment to working with communities to promote Ghana’s festivals, strengthen cultural tourism and create opportunities for local communities to derive greater economic value from their cultural heritage.
Source: PR UNIT- MoTCCA
