MUSIGA office to be a tourist attraction

Accra (Greater Accra), 15^th November 99

The new office premises of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), located near Reviera beach in Accra, is to be developed into a fully-fledged tourist attraction.

Nana Kwame Ampadu, General Secretary of the union who announced this at a meeting to plan the commissioning of the new office, said the venture could fetch substantial revenue to safeguard the future of musicians in the country.

Part of the revenue would also be used to run the new office, and to organise periodic seminars and workshops to update the skills of musicians to meet international standards and modern trends in the industry.

He noted that while civil and public servants as well us employees of some private organisations enjoy pension and social security schemes at retirement, most musicians have always led miserable lives in their old age due to the absence of such schemes for them.

"We have realised that if we do not do anything to protect our future, nobody would do anything for us".

Nana Ampadu said the project would include an open air restaurant, a clinic, open air art gallery, portraits of renowned Ghanaian musicians, a music album library and music recording studios among others.

"Now that we have completed the renovation of the new office, we have started gathering portraits and music albums of all Ghanaian musicians to be displayed in the conference hall and the library.

"We have also invited some artefact dealers at the Centre for National Culture (CNC) art centre, to display some of their wares on our premises to attract potential foreign and local tourists."

He however noted that the restaurant and clinic projects are yet to be offered to any interested private businessman or organisation.

Nana Ampadu praised the government for donating the new office premises to MUSIGA and gave the assurance that "we will prove to you that you were right in giving us this citadel".

The new office, which will be commissioned on November 30 this year, has 26 rooms and a big conference hall, which will also be used for musical concerts and for rehearsals.

Unlike the old office premises where every activity of the union was co-ordinated from a single office, various categories of musicians including young, old, traditional, gospel, highlife, rap and others would operate their individual offices with their own executives.

The new office was renovated with revenue generated from the sale of two volumes of albums of songs by various Ghanaian musicians.

Gyedu Blay Ambuley, a renowned musician, called on members of the union to forget about the past problems and unite for a better future, as "with unity we can build something great for ourselves".

Alhaji Sidiku Buari, president of the union told members that the union was recently registered on the Federation of African Musicians Unions (FAMU) and International Federation of International Musicians (FIM) at the recent congress of heads of African musicians unions in Nairobi, Kenya.

He urged them to take advantage of the new developments in the union to raise the standard of their individual works and the local music industry at large.

GRi