Newly-elected president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bice Osei Kufour, has said that the union is taking new steps to increase its membership and also get a new database.
As a result, the union would be embarking on a massive re-registering programme from October 12 at the National Theatre in Accra to re-register old members and register new members. It is not quite clear how MUSIGA’s constitution approves of the re-registration of old members but Obour said the decision fell within the tenets of their constitution as every member, after a every year, needed to renew his/her membership.
“MUSIGA has membership of 3000, with 800 members. By the end of our tenure of office, we would have increased MUSIGA membership by 500 percent. We will be embarking on a massive re-registering programme. “So I use this opportunity to inform everybody that on October 12 at the National Theatre, the process will start. Be you an arranger, sound engineer, programmer, chorister, bands man and anybody who has to do with music, you can come to register,” Obour said.
He made the statements at a press conference on Wednesday at MUSIGA office to announce a long list of musicians he will be working with and his four-year blue print to make life better for his fellow musicians in Ghana.
He said his administration’s main focus for the four-year mandate would be finding absolute solutions to the numerous problems of musicians, rebranding MUSIGA to be extremely attractive to investors and also ensure a culture of accountability and transparency. He said his administration would provide free healthcare and free legal advice for its members on music-related issues. He also promised to ensure that they provided a pension scheme for members as well as encourage music education in schools.
Obour said his administration would work closely with Government to bring about policies that would inure to their benefit, emphasizing they would do the same with event organizers.
The above, he claimed, were just an overview of the broader program he planned to undertake within his four-year tenure. He took the opportunity to name a number of musicians who are part of his administration and swore them into office.
Some of the persons sworn in included Rex Omar, chairman of business and finance committee; Ben Brako, chairman of fund raising committee; Nana Tuffour, director of highlife; Dela Hayes as national women’s organiser; Blakk Rasta as African music ambassador; Rocky Dawuni as world music ambassador; Obrafour as director of hiplife; Okyeame Kwame as public relations officer; Tic Tac as director of music relations directorate.
