Franklin Cudjoe has lauded President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the measures he says his Cabinet is taking to revamp the movie industry.
The President of IMANI Africa says the initiative will go a long way to propel the industry to rock shoulders with neighbours like Nigeria who are making global strides in the movie industry.
During the State of the Nation address Tuesday, February 27, 2024, President Akufo-Addo said his administration is seeing to it that the National Film Authority is empowered to ensure the production of world class movies.
He explained that the government was ensuring that some tax reliefs are granted movers of the industry to ease their production in order to meet world class standard.
“Mr Speaker, Government, through the National Film Authority, is committed to supporting the production of world class content and films, as well as increasing the cinema infrastructure in Ghana and, by extension, on the continent. To this end, a favourable fiscal (tax) regime for cinema projects, including income tax and VAT incentives, import duty exemptions on film production equipment, twenty percent (20%) tax rebate for strategic film productions and film financing reliefs, is being elaborated by Cabinet, which should be out-doored very soon, and should provide another tangible reason for the choice of Ghana as a film production country,” the President stated.
Reacting to the statement, President of the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education (CPE) indicated that the policy is a good one but advised the National Film Authority not to abuse the exemptions that are going to be granted to them.
“Good tax policy if implemented right, in addition to a general low cost of production. This shouldn’t lead to the National Film Authority circumventing and abusing the Tax Exemptions Act as we have seen the government do in the 2024 budget with suspicious tax exemptions totaling 12.5bn Cedis while everyone gets harassed for 11bn Cedis in additional taxes,” he stated.
Mr. Cudjoe noted that “this undoubtedly will make our film making industry finally come close to what our brothers in Nigeria are enjoying, for which most of their productions are simply fantastically produced and truly world class, like the latest Netflix produced political drama series I watched a few hours ago- “War: Wrath and Revenge”. Everyone must see the series – with not your usual Naija stars. But the cast, in Mofe Duncan, Rahama Sadau, Yakubu Mohammed, Patrick Doyle, Ayoola Ayolola, Ifeanyi Kalu, Theresa Edem, Bikiya Graham Douglas, Daniel Okosun, Maikudi “Cashman”, Mickey Odeh and Sophia Muhammed, are just amazing!!”
Captain Smart calls on gov’t to ban India, Spanish ‘Twi’ series; says it is creating unemployment
