african market ACCRA

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The Centre for National Arts and Culture, popularly known as Arts Centre, is located next to the Kwame Nkrumah Musoleum, off the High Street in Accra. The center became very popular in the 80's for its leisure and entertainment programmes through its "Anansekrom", which used to be held there on weekends.
Today, the reason for most of the hundreds of people who visit the place everyday is different. They go there to buy or sell in the arts and craft market, located within the premises of the Centre for National Arts and Culture. It is the biggest market for handicraft products in the country.

All kinds of handicrafts imaginable may be found in this market. The items range from wood carvings, traditional musical instruments, cane and raffia products, leather ware, gold, silver and bronze jewelry, beads, clay products, antiques, paintings to ivory products, and many more. These items are brought to the markets from various parts of the country and also from other countries within the West African sub-region including, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Senegal and Nigeria.

The arts and craft market provides employment opportunities for many people. Skills have been developed in carving, painting, designing, metal works to service the market.

The buyers are made up of those purchasing a few items to customers who place orders for large quantities of various products. A lot of buyers are tourists and other foreigners visiting Ghana. The market is in fact one of the most important tourist attraction sites in the City of Accra and in Ghana. For this reason, some important international personalities and delegations that visit the country for official assignments or attend conferences and seminars are taken to the market to see and perhaps buy some of the crafts on display. These customers spend hundreds of thousands of cedis including foreign exchange at the place

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