The Ministry of Art, Culture and Tourism became operational in January 2000. The Department of Arts and Culture was severed from the then Ministry of Youths and Sports and Culture while the Tourism Department was severed from the erstwhile Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The Ministry also has two Parastatals – the Edo State Arts Council and the Edo State Tourism Board. They are to assist in policy formulation and planning. Basically, the responsibilities of the Ministry are to preserve, protect, project and promote the State’s Cultural Heritage, develop and project the tourist potentials of the State to become the foremost tourist destination in Nigeria.

The Department of Culture is responsible for promoting, propagating and preserving the rich cultural heritage of Edo State, the preparation of cultural agreements and the coordination and implementation of such agreements. It is also responsible for arts and culture fairs, exhibitions, festivals and related activities. The main roles of the Department of Tourism are to promote tourism in the State and to identify and preserve all tourism sites in the State. It is also the contact point between the Federal Government through the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and the private sector through the State chapters of the Association of Tourism Practitioners of Nigeria (ATPN), the Association of Hotel Proprietors of Edo State, and other stakeholders in the tourism industry. The vision of the Ministry is “for Edo State to be the foremost tourist destination in Nigeria by the Year 2020”. The mission is “to preserve, protect, project and promote the State’s cultural heritage and sell Edo State as the tourist destination of Nigeria”.