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Message: [QUOTE="Nehanda, post: 22796, member: 2262"] On Tuesday, December 24th, 2024, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture (MOTAC) gave money to help groups hold festivals. MOTAC worked with the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) to give out D405,000.00. Seventeen community festival groups got money. The Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Abdoullahi Jobe, led the event, which was held at the Ministry. The groups received their money there. MOTAC and NCAC do this every year. They help festival groups as the celebrations begin. The amount given out this year was almost the same as last year. This is the fifth time MOTAC and NCAC have helped since the current government started. In 2018, they gave D200,000. In 2019, it was D300,000. Then, in 2021, it went up to D350,000. Last year, in 2023, they handed out D410,000.00. And this year it's D405,000.00. Codu L. Jabang Senghore is the Permanent Secretary at MOTAC. She spoke right before Minister Jobe gave out the money. She said MOTAC was happy to help the festival groups. "We want to give our support as a government," she explained. Senghore said the help for festivals started a few years ago. It was President Adama Barrow's idea. He wanted MOTAC to focus more on culture. "From 2017 until now, tourism and culture have been a priority," she noted. The PS also said that government funding for NCAC has doubled since 2017. "We feel very good about what we've done so far," she stated. Hassoum Ceesay is the Director General of NCAC. He discussed some of its activities, including training many event planners and festival organizers. DG Ceesay was glad that groups wrote to NCAC asking for help. "We really appreciate when you take the time to write to us," he said. Many different festivals received money. Some of them were the BMS Marching Band, the Sunu Festival, the Kwinella Sansankono Cultural Festival, and many more. In total, seventeen festivals across the country received support. [/QUOTE]

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