GH¢24,800 Royalties For Music Video Producers “Missing” At COSGA

The National Society of Ghana Music Producers (NASGAMP), has raised eyes brows over the where about of GH¢24,800 monies owed to music video producers by the Copyright Office of Ghana.

In a statement to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday, the Society said, the Interim Copyright Management Team (ICMT) of the Copyright Office of Ghana, which was supposed to disburse the amount, said it had already given it out. Members of NASGAMP, however, said they had not received the said amount from the ICMT in the statement which Mr Samuel Kephas Adu Jr, Special Assistant to the President of NASGAMP and Mr Kingsley Sarpong, Deputy General Secretary of the Society signed.

Meanwhile, in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the ICMT and copied to the GNA calling for clarity on the matter, NASGAMP indicated that a member of the Team, Mr Okraku Mantey, gave a contrary view to the public on television on July 30th that the audio visual money had not been disbursed and that it was intact. The letter, therefore, demanded an explanation on the matter from the Chairman of the ICMT, Miss Yaa Attafua, in order to trace the where about of the audio visual money, which was creating a lot of agitations among the generality of the music video producers and NASGAMP as a whole.

The amount is a 20 percent royalty deducted out of the Audio Visual share and set aside for distribution to music video producers in March 2010. The Internal Revenue Service collects the royalties on behalf of Copyright Office for onward disbursement to the music video producers. The letter said when NASGAMP and some members of RepaGh first contacted the ICMT at a meeting chaired by Miss Yaa Attafuah, she declined knowledge of the audio visual money and promised to see Mr Mantey for clarification.

NASGAMP is an association of renowned and active Ghanaian Music Producers made up of self music producers that is, the musicians who have set up their own companies producing themselves.