Ghana to spend $4.5 million on All Africa Music Awards

Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku has revealed that Ghana will spend a total of $4.5 million on the organization of three editions of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA).

The country is currently hosting the 2018 event in Accra and will continue to host the 2019 and 2020 editions as well.

Earlier, when the question about how much Ghana will spend on hosting the events was put to the minister she described it as “lame”.

However, when asked again by Andy Dosty on Hitz FM today, the Minister finally disclosed the figure.

“It is a three year program and the budget is 4.5 million dollars” she said.

In spite of the huge cost Ghana will incur, the Minister insists that Ghanaians should focus on the advantages of hosting the rest of Africa rather than criticizing government over cost.

“We tend to overemphasize on the cost of doing music, arts and culture rather than the benefits…You have to invest in it to get the returns,” she stressed.

This year’s AFRIMA scheduled for November 21 to November 24 comes with an array of activities across the country.

Earlier, sources close to the organizers disclosed to Myjoyonline.com that the event may have to be cancelled due to government’s failure to fulfill its contractual obligations.

Catherine Afeku, however, stressed in a media briefing on Monday that monies had been released to the Planning Committee for the event, thus, Ghana was ready to host the rest of Africa.

Currently, Africa’s biggest music awards scheme, AFRIMA, organised by the AFRIMA Secretariat in Nigeria with the collaboration of the African Union (AU), has been hosted by Nigeria for the past four years.