The Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry (GAPI) has received an amount of ¢680 million from the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund to undertake advocacy initiatives that would promote Ghanaian Music.

The GAPI advocacy initiative would include workshops, seminars and interactive fora among stakeholders in the industry, policy makers and the media.

Global View Consult (GVC) has been engaged to conduct research into the history, evolution and current state of the music industry in Ghana.

According to Francis Mensah Twum, General Secretary of GAPI, the support came in the nick of time.

He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the BUSAC fund was instituted by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) to assist civil society, private sector, trades union groups and the media to influence national policies of developing countries through advocacy.

The fund is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom.

Mr Twum observed that the history of Ghanaian music on the international scene indicated that the industry’s top players from developed countries were willing to finance the production and promotion of Ghanaian music provided the necessary protective structures and policies were put in place.

He acknowledged that the inclusion of the music industry in the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) 2006-2009 was a step in the right direction, to provide a holistic approach to addressing challenges of the industry as a matter of policy.

Mr Twum said as a follow-up to the research, GAPI would soon organize series of workshops and seminars to create interactive fora between stakeholders in the industry and policy makers to map out the way forward in achieving the targets of GPRS II for the music industry.

An initial draft report of the research made available to GNA indicated that in 2000, the World Bank provided part of its 300 million dollars cultural support budget to specifically assist music industries to six African countries including Ghana. It said for the past seven years not much had been done locally to access the funds to improve the local music industry.

“On the contrary the industry remained plagued with lack of finance, limited application of modern technology and lack of effective laws and regulation to protect intellectual property,” it added.

The report identified piracy and high cost of music production and promotion as challenges affecting the creativity and development of the industry and musicians in particular.

It said the advocacy initiative was intended to bring to the fore challenges and potentials in the Ghanaian music industry as well as its economic value to make national policy makers realize the need to support measures towards long term financing in the industry.

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