By Yunus S Saliu
The Minister of Tourism and Culture, Hamat NK Bah has disclosed that government plan to roll-out fund called National Tourism and Culture Fund is in offing.
Minister Bah answering questions from the press during its Ministry tourism facilities tour in Juffureh/Albreda villages said “is to make things easier for Gambian artists and other people in the sector to access what we called seed form.”
He explained that the seed form will enable them get money to help promote their jobs. To start with he said the Ministry of Tourism and Culture will have about two millions and this “with aim to have over ten million in two years, so that we can invest in the field of tourism, culture, arts, and generally to make sure that Gambian musicians and artists.”
Minister Bah continued that the fund will help to create necessary jobs for the youth through people in the sector and through them authorities can again address the issue of ‘backway.’
As tourism and culture have potentials for the serious minded people, he advised everyone in the sector to come forward and take ownership of what belong to them instead of taking directive or dictating what people should do.
“The greatness of a country is not measure by the size of its economy or the size of her army, but by its ability to preserve, educate and protect the past using as a source of impression for national development.”
He however noted that since his inception in office in 2017 to date that his ministry has revamped completely and reorganized the National Centre for Arts and Culture and “it has grown between 200 to 300 per cent since we took over.”
According to him the centre has changed direction while the dividends are obvious as thousands of Gambians whom today are feeling happy through extreme performance of Gambian artists.
“Gambian artists too are a bit happy too which is one of the reasons that you can see that the independent stadium is always fill up all the time when Gambian stars are playing,” he noted.
