Major Boost For Museums In Ghana

The Christiansborg Castle at Osu will soon be transformed into a Governance Museum a year after it was vacated for use as the official Office of the Presidency by President John Mahama. To this end, processes have begun to start work on renovating parts of the castle that is fast deteriorating to develop it into a Museum of Governance and Culture.

The idea is to create a one stop museum that would have effigies and memories of Ghana’s past presidents and their works.

Executive Director of the Ghana Museum and Monument Board Dr Zagbah Oyettey revealed this in an interview at a day’s roundtable discussion on Sustainable Partnership with by the Ghana Museum and Monument Board and the European Union Ambassadors in Accra.

The meeting created a platform for the GMMB to highlights on the state forts and castles across the country and to solicit support in renovating some of them to restore them to its valuable purpose for which they were built.

There are currently thirty two forts and castles in the country with majority of them in a state of deteriorating.

Out of the 32 two only two of the castles and forts are generating revenue for the country with a few of them in good shape whiles others have totally deteriorated.

Making his Presentation, Dr Oyettey called for collaboration in the areas of partnership for conservation, documenting and building capacity in conjunction with academic institutions.

According to him there was the need for the European Union delegation in Ghana and prospective partners to collaborate with the GMMB to renovate those that could be renovated considering the huge socio-economic benefit such collaborations could bring.

He enumerated job creation, business opportunities, research and educational activities using the museums as archaeology study, cultural exchange and development of the local economy as some of the benefits that can accrue to such partnerships.

Touching on challenges facing his outfit, Dr Oyettey mentioned lack of resources for conservation and management, inadequate trained staff, lack of fund for research and programmes as some of the challenging confronting the GMMB.

For her part the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Ms Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare called for the setting up of a technical working group to prepare an application for restoration work to prospective partners.

‘I want us to make preservation and maintenance of these world heritages our concerns ‘, she said.

The Head of the EU Delegation in Ghana Claude Maerten asked the GMMB to present them with concrete proposals and specific areas where the EU can support.

The meeting which was attended by Ambassadors from the EU delegation in Ghana was preceded with a familiarization tour of the Christiansborg castle at Osu.