Ghana: Emerging music entrepreneurs awarded British Council grants

CESP was created in partnership with Culture Forward (Ghana), University of the Arts London and Impact Hub Accra, and seeks to facilitate pathways for sustainable livelihoods for rising professionals in the creative disciplines. It also aims to “stimulate links between the UK and Ghanaian music creative economy by delivering training, mentoring, networking and business development services for young, emerging music professionals in Ghana in partnership with their peers in the UK.”

The initiative targeted music entrepreneurs including performing artists, songwriters, producers, DJs, sound engineers, music video producers, marketers, promoters, managers, agents, A&R representatives and tech professionals.

The announcement of the grantees comes on the heels of CESP’s launch in December last year, followed by an open call for applications, which saw the maiden cohort selected from 30 candidates.

The grantees, christened ‘NextGen 22’ and selected from a cohort of 30 applicants, include Edwin Quartey, Brakutz, Sosawavegod, Toyboi, Atswei Franalo, Daddo Gyan, Elodie Dee, Yung Tuff, Pure Akan and Essilfie, who described the grant as a “big win”. “Thank you Culture Forward for being part of my journey,” Elodie Dee added.

The 10 were taken through an intensive two-week boot camp, after which they received grants to support their career and chosen projects. Throughout the boot camp, they received mentoring from industry experts including producer Juls, Spotify manager for Anglophone West Africa Benewaah Boateng, Boomplay Ghana manager Elizabeth Ntiamoah and musician Mensa, among others.

“I am so proud of our top 10 finalists, and this is a very essential programme that needed to happen,” rapper M.anifest, who co-founded Culture Forward, said. ”We have an ecosystem in which a lot of creative people and music professionals don‘t get a lot of resources to help them learn and level up. This is a necessary programme, and I‘m so proud of the work that we‘ve put together these past couple of months.”