NAFAC Launched

By Alberta Larkai &Gustav Gyekye Appiah

The Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture, Mr. Asum-Ahensah

The Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture yesterday launched the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC) 2012 in Accra.

This year’s festival dubbed; “Harnessing our diverse and Human Capital and Technology to add value to the Creative and Agriculture Industry for Sustainable Development towards a Better Ghana,” is to take place at Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region, on October 13 to 20, 2012.

NAFAC is a cultural flagship programme of the Ministry which is celebrated every two years to promote the development of the arts and cultural industry, enhance national pride and consciousness and to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the nation.

It is also aimed at discovering and developing creative talents especially of the youth towards creating sustainable employment.

Launching it the Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture, Alexander Asum-Ahensah, said the festival has gone through various changes to underscore the critical role the diverse cultural manifestations play in the development of the nation.

He was optimistic that this year’s festival would be another eventful year so far as the celebration of NAFAC was concerned.

Mr. Ahum-Ahensah stressed that NAFAC presents an opportunity for the nation to examine its cultural heritage in the context of globalization, adding “it has afforded Ghanaians an opportunity to renew and consolidate their cultural values norms, friendship and identity.”

He noted the festival’s potential is to be one of the biggest economic drivers as far as the creative industry was concerned.

He appealed to corporate bodies to throw their weight behind the ministry by sponsoring the festival to derive enormous benefits.

Fritz Baffour, the Minister of Information who chaired the launch, said culture is the essence of every nation because it mirrors the society values and customs.

He urged the ministry and the planning committee to continue organising the festival no matter how under resourced they might be because it might become the “art Olympics of ghana” and people from various places would patronize it.

“We are the children of the environment and for the environment to be meaningful it has been transformed into culture,” Mr. Baffour said.

He entreated people of Ghana to patronize NAFAC and not only the experts in arts and culture.

Press members at the launch

Dr. Agyeman Ossei, the Acting Executive Director of the National Theatre, declared the theatre’s support for the festivities due to its dedication to development the arts and culture of the country.