The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman has appealed to Ghanaians to put a stop to their negative behaviour towards the organizers of AfroNation.
According to him, Ghanaians should stop discriminating organizers of AfroNation because they are Nigerians.
Speaking in an interview on Happy98.9 FM’s ShowbizXtra he said, “why should we discriminate against organizers of AfroNation just because they’re Nigerians. Instead of focusing on that, we should be focused on the money we as country got from the event.”
On his authority, the event which is considered as a public service provided a lot of money directly into the pockets of the ordinary Ghanaian. “Transport service providers, food vendors, event and recreational centers owners and staff all profited a lot from the event being hosted in Ghana,” he added.
“If we start complaining of the support government seeks to give the AfroNation just because organizers are Nigerians then we will really have a lot of problems with banks and other industries in the country. If we speak that way then we should close down all the Nigerian owned businesses in the country. But doing that can affect us as a country,” he made known.
The tourism boss revealed that the same Nigerians we are discriminating against, through their AfroNation brought international media publicity to Ghana.
“Everyone was praising AfroNation which was followed by international media. The event exposed Ghana the more to the international community.
International media is expensive and can cost over $5000 per mention. But Ghana got all that for free. As Ghanaians should stop acting in that discriminatory way,” he stated.
He revealed to host Doctar Cann that even the Ghana Music Awards was started by a Nigerian. “If that was accepted, why can’t we accept AfroNation because organizers are Nigerians?,” he asked.
The Ghana Tourism Authority, on behalf of the Government of Ghana, and Event Horizon, Organisers of the Afro-Nation Festival, on Monday, 20th January 2020, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Ghana host the AfroNation festival for the next five years.
The MoU, which was signed by Mr. Akwasi Agyeman, CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), and Obi Asika, CEO of Event Horizon, was witnessed by the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in London, on the sidelines of the Uk-Africa Investment Summit.
By: Joel Sanco
