On June 11, 2022, Ghana had another historic opportunity to witness the re-opening of the Ghana Museum, which is one of the most prominent tourist attractions in Ghana.
The facility which is located on the premises of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) in Adabra under the Korle Klottey Municipal Council in the Greater Accra Region has been out of service since it was closed for renovation since 2015, it was reopened after extensive work was done to it has been ensured that it meets the relevant standards appreciable enough to contribute to the tourism revenue generation policy in Ghana.
Historically, the facility is the largest and oldest of the six museums under the management of the GMMB, having opened on 5 March 1957 as part of Ghana's independence celebrations. The official opening was given by the Duchess of Kent, Princess Marina. A.W. Lawrence served as its first director.
The facility has some archeology, ethnography and visual arts subjects. Some archaeological sites date from the Stone Age to the recent historical past. Some ethnographic galleries present include Chef's Regalia, indigenous Ghanaian musical instruments, gold weights, beads, traditional textiles, stools and pottery. In addition, the facility houses items from other African countries that have been acquired through exchange, some of which are Senufo masks from Ivory Coast, Zulu wooden figurines and beaded ware from southern Africa, ancient Ife bronzes, and Bushongo carvings from Nigeria. respectively Congo.
The President, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo in his speech commended the efforts of Hon. Mohammed Awal, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture while ensuring the completion of the renovation project, emphasized the need to equally renovate other tourist sites that had remarkable historical antecedents but were left to their deteriorating condition. The President alluded to the fact that tourism is the third largest contributor to the country's GDP, generating revenue for the country's exchequer, hence the importance of protecting the numerous tourist sites in Ghana, promoting the growth of the tourism industry to attract tourists from all walks of life again, especially from the diaspora; an event that has been suspended due to the raging effects of the global pandemic and subsequent impositions and restrictions such as bans on public gatherings and border closures affecting air and land travel.
His Excellency the President of the Republic further indicated the government's commitment to revive the tourism industry in Ghana by announcing the sum of $10 million for the renovation of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Cape Coast Castle, Manhyia Palace Museum and many others. He further added that part of the money will also be used for the construction of new tourist sites.
The President further announced the need for industry to use digitization to grow. In fact, this came as very good news to us, especially considering the fact that Switch Up Ghana's mission is to digitize tourism and make it accessible to all tourists and potential tourists to have all the information about Ghana and our company. tourism, art and culture. The ideal reason we applaud the President is because based on his speech, we believe that the Switch Up Ghana Experience is on the right tangent to make Ghana a prosperous country from what God has blessed us with.
In addition, five ultra-modern amphitheatres are being built this year in some selected regions of the country and another five will be built next year. The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has been tasked by the President to ensure that together with its agencies, it works to attract two million tourists to the country by 2024, which the President believes could generate close to $4 million and also create about 150,000 jobs to reduce the devastating unemployment in the country.
We are very grateful to His Excellency the President of the Republic and the Government for the re-opening of the National Museum and the plan to renovate almost 60% of the heritage buildings, which are in various states of disrepair. It is also important that we appreciate the efforts of the former Mahama-led administration on the vision of renovating the National Museum which started in 2015.
We expect that the promises made by the government to the industry will be fulfilled. We at Switch Up Ghana believe it is time for policy makers to look to the tourism, arts and culture industries for economic growth, especially at this time when global economic indicators are not meeting expectations due to the impact of the pandemic and the Russian-War on Ukraine. This is the time when economies need to start discussing how to internalize revenue generation, this is the time when we need to focus not only on taxes to increase revenue but also on production. The recovery of tourism means that the country is exposed to potential economic growth that comes from internal structures; this means that any income generated stays in the economy.
Switch Up Ghana, we would also like to call on the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to be judicious in its spending and ensure that every loophole of corruption is sealed to ensure the effective use of allocated and billable resources. . By doing so, we as a country can give confidence to investors to invest in this sector and ensure growth.
Finally, we would like to call on other stakeholders such as the private sector, industry players, corporations, civil society organizations and probably the international community and individual investors to believe in and support the revival of tourism, arts and culture. Ghana is blessed with a lot of historical heritage and this heritage and tourist sites give an opportunity to preserve this history.
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