The vice-president of international projects and strategic partnerships for Global Citizen, Martin Forsyth has said the Global Citizen event aims to bring together international and local communities.
After enthralling Ghanaians with a memorable experience back in 2022, Global Citizen has returned this year with a new initiative dubbed “Move Afrika: A Global Citizen Experience Tour in 2024.”
Speaking on the Rush Hour on Asaase 99.5, Accra with Elvis Crystal, Forsyth said, “We were really fortunate that the people of Ghana not only got behind not just the event but the campaign as well.
“The festival was also aimed at bringing together the international communities and the local communities. All in all, we worked with over 30 vendors from across the production space from Ghana, covering everything from security to catering to technical production.”
“We employed over a thousand Ghanaians on that project that is the kind of job creation we created. When we look at the economic benefit as well 75% Ghanaian accommodations within that week and around 5000 people travelling to see the event as well,” he added.
Forsyth said, “What we really realised through Global Citizen Festival here in Accra is that we could do so much more within the event space.”
“As a result of that success with Global Citizen, we created a new event series called Move Afrika, it is a Global Citizen experience. We launched that last year in Kigali headlined by the incredible Kendrick Lamar,” he added.
Move Afrika is a long-term effort to pioneer a first-of-its-kind international music tour across Africa, driving economic investment, job creation and supporting entrepreneurship opportunities in each host country.
“Move Afrika is going to centre on job creation, skill sharing, economic development, and really looking at how we can play a part in helping to catalyse and support the growth of international tools across Africa.”
Also on his part, the vice-president of the events and meeting professionals association of Ghana (EMPAG), Kojo Poku explained that “For Global Citizen, it doesn’t matter if the event is happening in a first world country or a third world country, quality is assured.”
“For instance when Stonebwoy came for the first soundcheck, being on a horse wasn’t part of it but after he had seen the size of our stage he had to go back and restrategise. And eventually, we saw the results and we were all impressed,” Poku said.
“When I found out that the gentleman designing the set was the same person designing all of Beyonce’s set, it changed the whole outlook,” he added.
