Ho, July 30, GNA – Madam Janet Edna Nyame, Executive Director, National Commission on Culture (NCC) has called on employees and workers within the culture and creative industry to upgrade themselves to meet the current needs of the sector.
She said in a rapidly changing world, the employees and workers needed to take necessary steps to develop their capacity, acquire new knowledge and skills so they could remain relevant and competitive.
Madam Nyame who made these statements at this year’s meeting of Conference of Directors and Accountants of Centres for National Culture-Ghana in Ho in the Volta region noted that “we cannot be doing the same thing and expecting new results.”
As we strive to advocate for better conditions of service, we need to also remember that, every right comes with responsibility…we must develop ourselves to meet the standards of competence and professionalism expected of us, she stated.
The meeting was held on the theme; “The emerging roles and challenges of cultural administration in Ghana”, brought together regional directors and accountants of the CNC of the sixteen regions, and looked at issues including implementation, impact, and challenges of the COVID-19 campaign project.
It also touched on the state of regional theatres and galleries in Ghana, state of the Cultural Policy document, scheme of service, staff promotion, financial independence of newly created regions, the recruitment process of new employees among others.
Madam Nyame said the roles of cultural administration were changing at a fast pace with the introduction of new paradigms in the administration of cultural policies and their connection to national development, hence the need for workers in the sector to equip themselves with new techniques to help execute their duties with ease.
The Executive Director urged the government to advance measures to resource the culture and creative industry to deliver effectively on its mandate to meet the current expectations of the populace.
She said no government had underestimated the significant roles culture played in accelerating national development, “yet no government has adequately resourced the Commission and the CNCs to be able to fully achieve our core mandate.”
Madam Nyame disclosed that the Commission has recently recruited a total of 120 new employees for the various CNCs, adding that plans were underway to recruit more to solve the issue of human resources deficit.
The Executive Director also noted that the NCC Act and Cultural Policy documents were still at the stage of review and that the Ministry had taken measures to mobilise resources from the World Bank Facility to facilitate the review process.
Mrs Bernice Deh Kumah, Volta Regional Director, CNC, underscored the importance of the conference in enhancing the growth of the Centres in the country as it provided them with the opportunity to confer, strategize and take crucial decisions that benefitted the Centres.
She said over the years the Conference had recorded some significant achievements concerning networking, salaries, scheme of work and implementation of the collective bargaining agreement, and expressed optimism that more could be achieved if they continued to stay united.
Mrs Kumah however, lamented that inadequate funds and infrastructure continued to impede the smooth running of the day to day activities of the Centres.
She said the Internally Generated Fund, which the Centres were relying on to undertake their activities was also not enough, making it impossible for them to properly utilise the rich cultural resources of the regions, and therefore appealed for support.
Mr Emmanuel Quao, Former Dean of the Conference said financial and other challenges confronting the Centres would not be overcome soon, and asked the participants to develop comprehensive ways to generate funds for continuous delivery of their mandate.
He said the idea to promote and preserve the country’s culture and keep it intact must prevail and every necessary step should be taken to ensure that it did not fall to foreign influences to avoid engaging in any culture of surrender.
“We are in a situation today as Ghanaians, where our actions and way of living have been and are governed by inherited traditional concepts and current foreign influences and in the end the result, will be a combination of confusion,” he said.
Mr Quao said it was important to collectively examine the intellectual foundation of the country’s culture to identify those that were relevant in this century so that conscious effort would be made to maintain them for meaningful progress.
GNA