Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng Gyasi has disclosed the government of Ghana has withdrawn support from the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA).

According to her, this was necessitated due to unsuccessful industry collaboration.

The decision to withdraw from AFRIMA, the minister added was due to the discontentment from many industry players in the creative arts industry because of the huge contractual financial obligations.

Speaking in an interview, Madam Oteng Gyasi explained that the initial agreement was to host AFRIMA for 3 consecutive years from 2018 to 2020.

“The initial agreement was to host AFRIMA for 3 years but the industry collaboration as expected was unsuccessful. Many industry players were discontent with it: and if AFRIMA is for the industry and the players are discontent with it then we will have to withdraw and relook at it so that the next time we are going to organize such event, it will be properly done to the delight of everyone,”she said.

“AFRIMA is always there. We saw it prudent to withdraw for a while for another country to host to enable us to put things in order so that the next time we are to host AFRIMA, it will be more beneficial to the industry,” she added.

In 2018, Catherine Afeku acquired a 3 years right to host Africa’s biggest music awards scheme from 2018 to 2020 at the total amount of $4.5 million.

This was met with stiff opposition from players within the creative arts industry.