Dr. Kofi Amoah: �Gov't Must Invest In The Music Industry�

Ghanaian businessman extraordinaire, Dr. Kofi Amoah CEO of Citizen Kofi Entertainment Center, has challenged the ruling NDC government to shift its investment attention to the very promising Music industry in Ghana.

Dr. Amoah who has pledged a record amount of $100,000 to re-brand the image of the Musician Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), said the entertainment industry is labour intensive but generates income twice faster than any other sector.

Speaking on Peace FM�s �Entertainment Review�, Dr. Amoah lamented that governments (both past and present) always state in their manifestos to make the private sector the engine of growth, but somehow fail to inject capital into the sector especially the entertainment industry.

�Music is something that can be part of our national development,� he stated.

The business magnate described the Ghanaian music industry as a �Low hanging fruit,� because according to him, the little investment one makes guarantees profitable returns than other sectors of the economy.

�What I am saying is that Ghana government must look for money and invest in the music industry so that we can take it to the global market in a polished form; nicely packaged, with advertising and marketing strongly behind it,� Dr. Kofi Amoah emphasized.

Citing the examples of the USA, Britain and other developed countries, whose governments' investment in music has turned the industry around, Dr Amoah said it was sad during Mrs. Diana Hopeson (immediate-past President of MUSIGA)�s speech at the inauguration ceremony, it turned out all the sponsors who have being supporting MUSIGA all this while were mostly foreign companies.

"...this inspired me to support the union as a Ghanaian businessman," he added.

He posited that just like the legendary Bob Marley used music to market the culture of Jamaica to the whole world, like Beyonc�, Jay Z and others are doing to promote their country through music, a lot of Ghanaian musicians can do the same with our Hi-Life, Hiplife and Traditional music only if it is done professionally and well packaged.

�If we do our music well and package it to meet the world standard and we send it to the world market, it will generate huge income for the country and the musicians, it will put Ghana on the map and also attractive international investments�.

The CEO of Citizen Kofi pointed out that Entertainment and Tourism are the largest industries in the world stressing that the Tourism industry alone can generate over $1.3 Trillion annually and the Entertainment industry can make more than that yearly. He added that the entertainment is part of the services industry and the services industry has employed millions of people worldwide because it is labour intensive.

To him, unemployment, which seems to hang around the country's neck like an albatross can be mitigated through the Entertainment industry.

Jaws opened wide amidst deafening applause from the audience and guests at the Musician Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) headquarters Thursday September 8, 2011 when the business mogul and CEO of the biggest Entertainment center in Ghana, announced that he is pledging a whooping amount of $100,000 (GH�150,000) as seed money to restructure MUSIGA.

The shocking announcement was made during the inauguration ceremony to officially hand over from outgoing President Mrs. Diana Hopeson to newly elected president Bice "Obour" Osei Kufuor.

Explaining what motivated him to make such a mouth-watering token to the union, Dr Kofi Amoah said, �Our brothers and sisters who do music also help to take the name of Ghana very far and I saw that it was time someone supported them�.

He stressed that it is his desire to see a restructured and a rebranded MUSIGA which can attract International stars.

�I want us to be able to invite international music stars like Beyonce to visit MUSIGA office and she will respect Ghanaian musicians when she departs," he added.

He however cautioned Ghanaian musicians to take up what they are doing as a serious challenge and package themselves well to meet the standards of the world.

Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana