Nigerian gospel musician Simeon Igwe, known on stage as Minister Igwe holds no regret for choosing to ply his music trade in Ghana instead of his native Nigeria which has a bigger and more lucrative market.
Nigeria with its huge population – about 174 million – and bigger music market has a bigger impact on sales than a relatively smaller Ghanaian population – 25 million.
Minister Igwe has been in Ghana for about four years now and says he is stuck in the country because he is happy about the “very cool” nature of the industry.
Speaking in an interview with Myjoyonline.com, he affirmed that he “will choose the Ghana market” over Nigeria any day or time.
Supporting his choice, Minister Igwe said while he will not dispute the fact that the Nigerian market is bigger, that country’s music is mostly contemporary and their musicians “are trying to be Western.”
He noted that Ghanaian musicians have maintained “their tradition” something he has incorporated into his album – ‘This Is Not English’.
The musician believes that although the market size of a country matters, “in every market there is space so far as you have good stuff, once you can deliver.”
Asked how he ended up doing music in Ghana, Simeon Igwe said: “I wasn’t coming to Ghana exactly, I was travelling to South Africa but one way or the other I found myself in Ghana so I felt like let me just in one way or the other impact this generation with my music.
Minister Igwe has been doing music for the past eight years and has a new album – This Is Not English – to his credit. The album features Ghana’s Cwesi Oteng, Liberian musician based in Ghana Teddy Amilac among others.
He is set to stage a mammoth gospel concert between some of Ghana and Nigeria’s finest gospel acts dubbed ‘Ghana – Naija in Praise’ in October this year.
Some of the artistes billed to perform at that concert include Cwesi Oteng, Ohemaa Mercy, Joe Mettle representing Ghana while Frank Edwards, Nathaniel Bassey, and Florocka will represent Nigeria. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Ernest Dela Aglanu (Twitter: @delaXdela / Instagram: citizendela)
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