MTN Ghana has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Folklore Board (NFB) that allows MTN Ghana to digitise and host the Ghanaian Heritage on the MTN Ayoba App.

The MoU, will amongst other things, facilitate the distribution of Ghana’s cultural products as well as intellectual content among the youth and the global society.

Eric Nsarkoh, Sales and Distribution Executive of MTN Ghana, who signed the MoU on behalf of MTN Ghana said the partnership presents a unique opportunity for the country and its teeming youth to document and monetize their creativity and MTN Ghana is excited to be the facilitator for such an initiative.

“At MTN Ghana, we approach our business as a community partnership. That said, if the youth want to access heritage and cultural content and we are in a position to facilitate that as a telecommunication network, we take pride in doing so.”

The Acting Director of National Folklore Board, Nana Adjoa Adobea Asante, on her part, said the signing of the MoU is the beginning of a great relationship between MTN Ghana and the National Folklore Board

“One of the key things that we need to do was to ensure that we have an inventory of our folklore and what better ways to have an inventory which is digitally accessible to all.

"So a partnership with MTN is a step in the right direction and it will help us as a government institution to fulfil our mandate and the target that has been set for us by the government.”

Already the pioneers of the Heritage App, which promotes the culture and traditions of Ghana, MTN is hoping to use the partnership with the National Folklore Board to take the purpose of the App a step further by hosting it on the Ayoba platform which is accessible in other operating countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Following the signing of the MoU, information from the National Folklore Board will be migrated to the Ayoba App.

From there, the second phase will see a more active collaboration between the two partners in order to create new content while the final phase looks at monetization.