Ghanaian broadcaster and fashion icon Kofi Okyere Darko, known in showbiz as KOD has reiterated his call to promote a higher percentage of Ghanaian content in the culture space.

Speaking to Joy FM’s Kwame Dadzie on the station’s Twitter (X) Spaces show, Joy Entertainment Unpacked, KOD said the best thing citizens and the creative people can do during the Yuletide is to be intentional about introducing Ghana’s culture to visitors.

“We should be very intentional about promoting Ghana music especially in December, especially on our airwaves and the pubs and the clubs. 

Everywhere you go in this world, there are a few things you go back home with: you probably buy clothes from a fashion designer. Your experience with whatever they cook or the food from that country stays on your mind for life but music and fashion accessories go with you for a lifetime. So we should be very intentional about projecting Ghanaian music especially in December when we have the whole world focusing on Ghana,” he noted.

This is not the first time KOD has made this call. He has always championed the agenda to sell Ghana to the world.

Although in the past he asserted that people who provide music should dedicate 100% of Ghana’s content to their playlists, the CEO of Nineteen57 told Kwame Dadzie asking for 100% will be too much. 

Supporting KOD’s call, DJ Mensah, the Founder of the EDM Festival cited how cab drivers in other countries are also dedicated to promoting their local music. 

“If you travel to anywhere especially somewhere like New York, as soon as you sit in the Uber or any of your friends’ cars they are listening to hip hop or RnB depending on the radio station. When you come to Ghana it used to be RnB and hip hop. Now, it’s either Nigerian music or something else 

When the foreigners come they want to hear something from Ghana. They want to hear something different from what they are used to,” he said. 

The fight for more local content in the Ghana media space is one of the banes of the the country’s entertainment sector.

While a lot of people want to hear more of Ghanaian music played the radio as at events, some people including DJ Ashmen have also intimated that the DJs play what the audience wants, a reason they wouldn’t stress to play more Ghanaian music at all cost. 

In the meantime, the Broadcasting Law which has a provision for 70% local content for Ghanaian media is yet to be passed. 

'December in GH' is an initiative put together by the Beyond the Return Secretariat under the aegis of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to promote and offer support to events that are held during the Yuletide.

This is a spillover project from the Year of Return initiative which took place in Ghana in 2019. This saw a huge number of people from the Diaspora visiting the country in December.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, the Year of Return and its resultant projects have shored up the gross domestic product of the country in recent years.