MTN Ghana partners with National Folklore Board on digitisation campaign

The arrangement, which was made public on 21 October, will allow for the documentation of various forms of Ghana’s traditions, including music, stories and customs via the telco’s Heritage App, which is available on the Google Play Store and App Store. It offers users cultural, historical and traditional information along with social commentary.

Established under Section 76 of Ghana’s Copyright Act of 2005, the National Folklore Board has regularly embarked on sensitisation campaigns, including a recent social media infographic series titled Did You Know? MTN Ghana is also known for supporting some 30 traditional festivals.

National Folklore Board acting director Nana Adjoa Adobea Asante said the partnership marked the start of an important relationship with MTN Ghana that would help the board to fulfil its mandate to digitally promote and preserve the country’s folklore.

MTN Ghana sales and distribution executive Eric Nsarkoh also emphasised the importance of the partnership. “They [the National Folklore Board] are the gatekeeper for all the heritage content in Ghana, whether it’s stories, music and scientific works If we want to distribute or support the distribution of our intellectual content, this is one of the partnerships that have to be in place,” he said.

“If the youth want to see heritage content and we provide telecommunication networks that connect them to the Internet, then we have to help them to get the tools to access the kind of content that they want to see.”

The signing of the MoU is expected to be followed by the creation of new content and monetisation opportunities for the app. There are also plans to host the app on Ayoba, MTN’s messaging platform that is accessible across the network’s operating countries in Africa and the Middle East.