The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku has admonished all Ghanaians to get themselves involved in this year's Ghana Carnival and Homofest which is slated from June 30th to July 2nd and October 6th respectively.

According to her, the two events when patronized by Ghanaians will help accelerate the diversity of the Ghanaian culture and project the country’s image in a positive light to the rest of the world.

“We have taken these events up to use them as a vehicle to accelerate the diversification of our cultural tourism products since we have rich cultural resources amongst all ethnic groups in the country,” she said.

The minister added that the event is to provide the platform to celebrate the very best of Ghanaian culture and music.

“The sole aim of this carnival is to promote the Ghanaian culture through entertainment, pleasure, merry making and happiness,” adding that “Companies will also be given the opportunity to showcase their products and services to the over 4,000 people expected to be at the carnival”.

She added that whenever Ghanaians hear of carnival their minds go to the Caribbean, which is rightly so, because those in the Caribbean have made their carnival attractive enough to attract tourists from across the world.

“When we talk about carnival everybody’s mind goes to the Caribbean, they took it from here, the carnival is a traditional African dance and African expose of our culture so let us reclaim our culture” she added.

The Minister was optimistic that the event will be embraced and propagated by all.

This year's Ghana Carnival is themed, “Using Arts and Culture to promote our Economy”.

Madam Afeku was speaking at the launch of the 2018 edition of the Ghana Carnival and Homofest in Accra on Friday, April 20.