Idris Elba joins Otumfuo for Akwasidae Festival

British actor Idris Elba joined Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, chiefs and a host of other natives of Ashanti to celebrate Akwasidae at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi earlier Sunday, February 5.

The Akwasidae Festival is celebrated by the Ashantes once every six weeks on a Sunday.

The Beast of No Nation actor has been the talk of the town since last week when pictures and videos of his visit to President Akufo Addo went viral.

During his recent visit to the Jubilee House, Elba revealed that he and his partners were preparing to build a film studio in Ghana and across West Africa.

The actor explained that although a lot can be achieved in the film industry in Africa,the region lacked the required facilities.

“Currently, we call it West African Studios, but that’s a working title. We’ve been working on this for three or four years to raise a plan that puts a facility at the centre of African filmmaking. There’s a lot for African filmmaking, but the facilities are lacking.”

“We realised that policy is where the actual groundwork needs to be laid. We’ve studied the models of South Africa, incredible incentive packages, Greece, Morocco and these are all places where they realize the value of the filmmaking and they’ve brought that policy into play.”

“National Film Authority has done the work and put together a very comprehensive plan to propel Ghana into the forefront. It needs to be robust and competitive with the rest of the world. We believe Ghana should surely step up in terms of attracting those filmmakers. I’ve come and seen you and presented to you essentially, just the parameters of what we need to do.”

President Akufo-Addo assured Idris Elba that the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is developing a policy framework to guide filmmaking in the country.