The National Film Authority-Action Group (NFA-AG), a creative arts industry pressure group largely made up of film industry stakeholder associations and guilds have sent a collective plea to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to immediately take action to lift restrictions on cinemas.

This comes after months of total lockdown of movie houses following the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.

Cinema houses have been closed after the directive to totally lock down all public sites of meeting was passed in March 2020.

Other recreational centres, including Churches, Mosques, Conferences, Award shows and drinking bars. In addition, passenger buses have been allowed to operate at full capacity while travelling to further destinations, but the cinemas still remain closed.

The NFA-AG group have now decided to launch a petition to help save the dying industry, signed by Ps. Cosby Bikpe, convenor of the group states that the reopening of cinemas is to enable the film industry to kickstart its process of recovery.

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Excerpts from it read:

"The National Film Authority - Action Group (NFA-AG), a Creative Arts industry pressure group largely made up of film industry stakeholder associations and guilds is calling on the Presidency through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to immediately take action to lift restrictions on our cinemas in Ghana."

"This is to enable the film industry to kickstart its process of recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic in line with many other sectors. It will be recalled that this letter was presented to your ministry on 4th Augusta, 2020, without any response, nor an acknowledgement of receipt from your outfit. Although we find this inappropriate, we would like to reserve our misgivings with all benefits of the doubt on any deliberate neglect of our petition."

"We have carefully evaluated the potential spread of the virus at our cinemas and the attached risk assessment shows the residual rating as safe for reopening."

"We propose an online booking system which will allow us to track and trace our customers easily. Further to our own proposal, we have taken notice of the measures outlined by the cinema operators and submitted to the Ghana Tourism Board for consideration – a copy attached."

"Our petition comes at this good time, especially after His Excellency, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has lifted restrictions on a number of indoor/enclosed sectors where large groups gather such as Churches, Mosques, Conferences, Award shows and drinking bars. In addition, passenger buses."

Read the full document here.