The Minister for Tourism Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng Gyasi has vowed to get the Creative Arts bill passed before her tenure in office ends.

The Minister in a conversation with George Quaye on Showbiz A-Z on Joy FM, shared the progress she has made so far with getting the bill passed.

According to her, the bill is currently at the Attorney General’s Department awaiting cabinet’s approval

“We are at the tail end of finalising the bill. The Attorney General’s Department sent it to us after incorporating all the amendments that has been proposed, and we have accepted it by sending it back to the Attorney General’s department.

Once they finalise it, bring it back to us, and we get cabinet’s go ahead, it will go to parliament.

“We recognise that the parliament meeting will be about the budget, so definitely during the meeting, we’ll need to submit the bill to parliament so that by the end of this year, we’ll have the creative industry bill passed into law”

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta while presenting the 2019 budget and financial statement of government to parliament, announced that the Bill was in Parliament for consideration.

“Mr. Speaker, the Creative Arts Industry Bill is now in Parliament for deliberation and passage into Law. The Creative Arts Fund is incorporated in the Bill to ensure the economic viability of the Creative Arts Sector in the economy”

Oteng Gyasi has promised to work at getting the bill passed before 2020 ends.

“For me, it’s very critical. If I don’t do anything at all between now and the end of the year, I will at least ensure that the bill is passed into law. It is a promise and I’m going to work hard at it.”

She added that “critical to the bill is the creative arts fund which is included in it.

“And once we have it passed, we can make proposals to ensure that in the next budget, we can have something allocated to the fund, so it supports the industry to grow”