The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MoTAC), has since 2021 disbursed about US$20 million grant nationwide to promote the growth of the private sector, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, the Sector Minister has said.
He said the beneficiaries comprised of small-scale businesses, including roadside ‘Waakye’ (cooked mixture of rice and beans) sellers and other food vendors.
Dr Awal disclosed this when he addressed the opening session of a day’s media capacity building workshop on tourism, arts and culture reporting in Kumasi.
The workshop was organised by the Ministry for Journalists and other media practitioners form the middle zone comprising of Ashanti, Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions.
Dr Awal said domestic tourism had huge economic potential that could widen the nation’s foreign exchange earnings, saying the Ministry had targeted to meet 1.2 million arrivals in the country by the end of 2023.
Last year, he said about one million tourists arrived in the country which fetched the nation about US$300,000.
Dr Awal said with the support of the media, the tourism, arts and culture sector alone could create about 150,000 jobs every year, saying Ghana required the creation of least one million jobs annually, to tackle her rising youth unemployment.
With the support of the media the Ministry could help the nation to create more jobs, he said and called on the journalists to endeavour to put a spotlight on the country’s tourist attraction sites.
As the number one income earner, Dr Awal said it was incumbent on the media to support, well-package and showcase the culture and artistic assets of the country.
He said the media must highlight and portray tourist attraction sites such as the Cape Coast Castle, Manhyia Palace Museum, Kintampo Waterfalls, the Nzulezu, Kwame Nkrumah Museums and other sites to boost eco-tourism.
This would put the sector on the edge and thereby position it to contribute significantly to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Dr Awal added.
Mr. John Yao Agbeko, the Chief Director, MoTAC, lauded the passion, commitment and personal contributions of the sector minister towards developing and improving the performance of tourism for the nation’s economic growth.
He said media support by highlighting the economic potential of the sector would push rapid socio-economic growth and accelerate national development.
Mr. Frederick Adjei-Rudolph, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority, urged the media to concentrate on the positives when covering tourism, arts and culture events.