Ghana’s music industry and the entire Creative Arts Industry have never had any sort of data or research to quantify their contribution to the Nation’s GDP. This has made it extremely difficult for past Governments to make any budgetary allocation to the Industry. This has led to what some people believe to be a neglect of the Industry. The Musicians Union of Ghana, MUSIGA is spearheading a research to know the contribution of music to Ghana’s GDP. This project, which was launched in Accra last December witnessed an open Stakeholders Forum at the auditorium of the British Council in Accra on Tuesday January 15th 2013. The Forum, which was chaired by Honorable Mike Gizo, aka, Nene Nagai Kassah, Chief of Agomeda and a onetime Minister of Tourism witnessed the presence of Honorable Akua Sena Dansoa, Minister of Tourism, renowned Ethnomusicologist Prof Emeritus Nketiah, one time MUSIGA President Agya Koo Nimo, Prof John Collins of the University of Ghana, Korkor Amarteifio of the Institute of Music Development, Theresa Ayoade of Charter House, the current MUSIGA President and Executives, Media people and representatives from other Creative Art Associations as well as Representatives from KPMG, the Consultants, Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture and NDPC. Stephanie Soleansky of the French Embassy was also present. In his statement, Bice Osei Kuffour, MUSIGA President outlined some of the problems associated with the music industry, why the research was commissioned and gave an overview of what the findings will signify. He expressed his profound gratitude to the Government of Ghana, Dr Kofi Amoah of Citizen Kofi and the World Bank for supporting this research project in particular and MUSIGA. Honorable Sena Dansoa also spoke about how her sector Ministry is in collaborations with the French Embassy to help develop the creative Arts Sector. The Representative from NDPC gave a general briefing of how such research and data helps in informing government decision to allocate monies to the sector and how much money to allocate when the need arises. The reason why the Industry has not gotten much in terms of Government support over the years has simply being because there has not been any data to help in informing such decisions. He advised the creative Industry in general to come up with a strategic plan so as to attract funding from Government. The KPMG Representative, Evans Asare, gave an overview of the areas the research will cover, how they intend to gather the data and when they will present a draft of their findings. This will be in three months time.  He also spoke about the general findings the research will come out with and some of the questions the research will seek to answer. There was an open forum where participants were broken into four groups. They held discussions on some of the problems they are facing in their various sectors. All the groups joined again and discussed their findings. This was moderated by Korkor Amarteyfio. Some of the issues had to do with pricing of music CDs, packaging, inadequate venues, lack of sponsorship for the sector, piracy and payola. There will be a similar forum in three months time where KPMG will present a draft of their findings before they make their final submission.]]>