First Vice Chair for the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), Alhaji Ahmed Banda aka Bandex has backed highlife legend Randy Nunoo and some other colleague musicians who are agitating that the Kojo Antwi led administration has failed to distribute royalties to musicians.
According to them,although royalties have been collected for and on behalf of members, the leadership has failed to account for these royalties.
Speaking to Agyemang Prempeh, host of GH Entertainment Show on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm, Bandex attested candidly that the distribution of royalties has not been the best. He was however quick to add that, that alone does not make it okay for people to describe their administration as a failure.
‘’You have to assess us sector by sector. It is not everything I will be happy about but I can say that we have done our best.’ He said, they have put in place the needed structures and an ongoing infrastructure, but one thing he said he was not happy about, has to do with the way royalties were distributed to members. ‘’One thing I can say I am not happy about is the distribution of royalties to members.
It has not been encouraging but in some cases, I do not want people to compare our time with that of Carlos Sakyi. We distributed royalties on three occasions but it will not be proper if we compare our period with that of the previous administration. You cannot say that because we’ve distributed royalties twice in two years, we have failed”,.
When asked the amount of money currently in the coffers of GHAMRO, he declined to answer and stated that it would not be best to disclose such information to the general public, but the best practice is to account to members at their annual general meeting:
”It will not be possible to embezzle funds at GHAMRO because you will account to the Attorney-General (A-G) so those alleging that we’ve embezzle funds should stop.”He quipped
GHAMRO license and collects royalties when music is played and performed. GHAMRO also license and collects royalties when music is reproduced.
It was established under section 49 of the Copyright Law, Act 690 of 2005 and regulated under L.I. 1962 of 2010 to collect and distribute royalties accruing to authors and owners of copyright and neighbouring rights.
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