The director of National Centre of Arts and Culture (NCAC) has raised concerns over the failure of event organisers, including government parastatals, to patronize Gambian musicians.

 Baba Ceesay lamented that local artists are paid a pittance for performance compared to the millions of dalasi paid to foreign artists.

”In 2013, more than 28 foreign artists were invited to perform in the country,” he disclosed.

The NCAC boss raised these concerns while presenting NCAC’s 2013 activity and financial report to the National Assembly’s Public Accounts and Public Enterprises Committee.

Ceesay said it is against this background that the payment of non-resident artists was introduced in the 2003 NCAC Act. With it, event organisers are required to pay licenses for each event they organised with visiting artists based on three categories which reflect increased importance and selling power of the artist.

“The rationale behind the introduction of the scheme was to discourage the use of foreign artists who fleece Gambian taxpayers, and encourage the growth of local music industry,” Ceesay said.

Members of the PAC and PEC have raised concerns about the [slow] growth of the Gambian music industry.

The Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Fatou Mbye, said President Yahya Jammeh has been investing a lot in Gambian music. “So it is up to them to take advantage of the initiative and capacities themselves.”

However, Tijan Camara, chairperson of the NCAC Board of Directors disagreed. He said: “what is happening in The Gambia is not promoting artists, but rather promoting griotism.”

“We are appealing to the president, before you give a million to an artist, give it to the NCAC. We will organize a chartbuster and we will produce stars within three years.”

Hon. Alhagi Sillah, Member for Banjul North, agreed with Mr. Camara. He said the investment in the music industry should be structured and channeled through the NCAC as a body responsible for arts and culture.

Sillah admitted that The Gambia has talents and there is a need to look at what areas went wrong.

“We were there before - from Banjul, Dakar and Accra during the time of Efa Bondi, Super Eagles doing exceptional - that if you don’t call them to your event it means there was no event,” Sillah said.

He added that there is a need to strategize and come up with solutions to bring back that attention in “our music industry.”

Hon. Abdoulie Saine, Member for Banjul Central, also agreed with suggestions to revisit the music industry.