Music Industry Has No Structures- Obour

The President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bice Osei Kuffour has declared that the GH�2million budget allocation for the music industry was inadequate for the music sector alone.

According to him, the music industry needed more support from the government to boost its image since it has suffered from a number of weaknesses including weak distribution channels, a lack of documentation and economic measurement, lack of strategic marketing competencies, inadequate skilled industry professionals, lack of enforcement of existing laws, small market size, technology deficiencies, inadequate infrastructure, lack of investments among others.

Speaking at a press briefing on the study of the music sector held at International Press Centre in Accra on Monday, December 3, the president of MUSIGA, who is also known as Obour stressed that the music industry had no institutional structure that trained and fed its practitioners in this country, and that the lapses and inadequacies in the sector were many and varied.

The press briefing which was under the theme, �Revitalizing the Creative Art Industry: The contribution of the music sector to the socio-economic development of Ghana,� was organized by MUSIGA to throw more light on the project and inform stakeholders and the public about it.

The objectives of the study were to collect, collate, analyse and present qualitative and quantitative information on the whole sector.

Specifically, the study sought to provide a baseline data on the music sector using both primary and secondary data, understand and explain the structure and functioning of the sector in Ghana and identify vital strengths and weaknesses, make recommendations and proposals to stakeholders and government on the way forward and stimulate discussions within the music sector, between related sectors in the creative art industry and between government and other stakeholders as to what policies will be useful for revitalizing the overall industry.

Obour disclosed that the industry had no data on the commercial values that music and other creative industries brought into the national kitty.

According to the MUSIGA president, the outcome of the study would be used to prepare a four-year medium term strategic plan to guide the development of the Ghanaian Music Industry.

�In the middle of January 2013, we shall also organize a bigger stakeholders� forum to prepare the grounds for all who have information to share with the consulting firm to ensure that at the end of this project we shall have a very credible data to drive investments into the music sector,� Obour disclosed.