We can't pay royalties this December because of Govt - GHAMRO

The Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO) has said that musicians will not receive their royalties this December and this occurrence it says must be blamed on the Government.

President of the Organization, Rex Omar, in an interview with Happy FM’s Doctar Cann on the ‘Showbiz Xtra’ show explained that the Government through the Ministry of Finance has refused to pay the due levy to musicians, making it hard for GHAMRO to disburse any money to musicians this December.

“Four months ago, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) told us the whole of this year we have 2.5 million Ghana Cedis. We have been moving up and down on this money because even though we have taken some monies on our own, we need to add the money from the Government to the one we have and then we disburse it.

If this 2.5 million Ghana Cedis is made available, after the deductions, GHAMRO will have 700,000 to add to the money we already have and disburse.

Just yesterday, however, I received information that the government says it can’t give us 2.5 million Ghana Cedis and that it will give us 700,000 Ghana Cedis. How do we disburse such a small amount to over 4,000 musicians? “

According to him, GHAMRO has been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and all efforts to get the Government to come to their aid has proven futile.”

“When COVID-19 came, we made a request through NBSSI but they didn’t give us any money. The money we had, we shared it among our people in April to support them. We originally had about 37 staff, laid off 20 and reduced the salaries of the 17 by 70 percent”, he added.

Rex Omar insisted that if there was anyone to blame for this mishap, it should be the Government and not him.