Dzifa Gomashie is the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts
In the cold mathematics of governance, culture is often treated as the orphan of the budget, a decorative luxury to be discarded when the fiscal winds turn harsh.
Yet, in the year 2025, Abla Dzifa Gomashie shattered this provincial mindset. She performed a feat of political alchemy, transforming the “poverty of the arts” into the “prosperity of the state.”
If leadership is the art of making the invisible visible, then Gomashie is Ghana’s premier visionary. She did not merely manage a ministry; she resurrected a national soul that was gasping for air in the shadows of neglect.
For years, the creative sector survived on the crumbs of presidential promises. In 2025, Gomashie replaced the crumbs with a banquet. By securing the GH₵20 million Creative Arts Fund, and GhC20 million for the National Film Authority in the 2026 budget, she did more than balance a ledger; she signed a declaration of independence for every Ghanaian dreamer.
This was not a populist handout. It was a strategic strike against the stagnation of our creative DNA. She understood, with the clarity of a constitutional scholar, that a nation that cannot fund its own stories will eventually be forced to live someone else’s.
By insisting on formal registration and business-led modalities, she has turned the “struggling artist” into a “sovereign entrepreneur.” The fashion industry’s US$2.42 billion contribution to our GDP is no longer an accidental statistic; it is a monument to its relentless demand for institutional respect.
Perhaps her most profound intellectual contribution in 2025 was the launch of the UNESCO Culture 2030 Indicators. For too long, we have defended culture with emotion; Gomashie has chosen to defend it with evidence.
By adopting this global thematic framework in May, she has positioned Ghana as a pioneer in measuring how culture directly fuels the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2025, Ghana submitted Highlife as ICH, and it is now listed on the UNESCO list.
She has bridged the gap between the drumbeat and the digital age, ensuring that Ghana’s cultural policies are not just well-intentioned but internationally validated. It is a masterstroke of constitutional clarity: she is proving that culture is not a subset of development, but the very engine that drives it.
History is often a silent witness, but under Gomashie’s tenure, our heritage has found its voice. The reopening of Ussher Fort and James Fort in December 2025 was not a mere ribbon-cutting ceremony. It was a moral reclamation. While others see crumbling stones, Gomashie saw the bruised skin of our history and applied the salve of restoration.
She has proven that tourism is not just about the movement of bodies across borders; it is about the movement of spirits across time. By aligning our historic sites with UNESCO standards, she has elevated Ghana from a mere destination to a global sanctuary for the African diaspora.
We have long suffered from “anecdotal governance, the habit of managing by feeling rather than by fact. Gomashie has ended this era of guesswork.
Her push for the Tourist Satellite Account (TSA) is a masterstroke of administrative genius. She has finally given the Ghanaian tourism sector a spine of data, ensuring that every cedi spent is a cedi measured.
She is the first to tell us that “what cannot be measured cannot be managed.” By partnering with the Ghana Statistical Service, she has moved the Ministry from the periphery of the “soft sectors” to the very heart of the Economic Management Team.
Perhaps her most poetic achievement is the Creative Arts Hall of Fame in Sekondi. In a country that often forgets its heroes before the funeral dirt is dry, Gomashie has built a house for memory. She has signalled to the youth that the stroke of a brush or the rhythm of a drum is as vital to the Republic as the gavel of a judge.
Juxtapose this with the cynicism of yesteryears, and the contrast is blinding. Where there was silence, she gave us a song. Where there was decay, she gave us a pillar. Where there was a “Ministry of Leisure,” she has built a “Ministry of Legacy.”
As we stand at the dawn of 2026, the verdict is inescapable. Abla Dzifa Gomashie has redefined the boundaries of the possible. She has shown us that our culture is not a burden to be carried, but a fuel to be burned.
She has balanced the legal rigour of the Creative Arts Act with the moral obligation to our ancestors. She has used her office not as a throne, but as a megaphone for the voiceless. If the measure of a leader is the height to which they lift their people, then Dzifa Gomashie is standing on the summit of excellence.
Ghana is no longer just a spot on the map; because of her, it is a brand in the mind of the world. The “Black Star” is not just a symbol on our flag; in 2025, thanks to Dzifa, it became our greatest economic asset.
Source:
www.ghanaweb.com