The Creative Arts Agency and Expertise France have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at supporting the music industry in Ghana and ensuring that artistes own up to their works.
The project which is being funded with an amount of €500,000 by the French Government via the French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Ministry of Economy, seeks to serve a long-term partnership with Ghana for two years, starting from June 2023 to June 2025.
This comes after an appeal from Ghanaian authorities and a ratified regard from workers in France to establish partnerships with Ghanaian entrepreneurs in the creative arts sector. This agreement will, however, license the transfer of skills, access to the global copyright market for Ghanaian right holders as well as the blooming of business between the music industries of both countries.
Speaking to B&FT, the Chief Executive Officer of the Creative Arts Agency, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo, noted that most artistes do not have their works protected under the copyright law, hence, the MoU is said to offer these artistes the ability to retain their own works.
“We have to be able to make sure that our industry understands the knowledge of copyright and intellectual property. As it stands, our artistes’ works are not protected; so I think that it will also have a ripple-effect on the professionality that we have for the music industry.
These are steps toward digitising the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO) and also pave way toward making sure that every single artist within Ghana understands how to own their work when it comes to copyright and intellectual property. That’s what we’re hoping to take steps toward,” she added.
Ms. Akufo-Addo revealed that GHAMRO is very overworked amid criticisms within the industry, hence, it is believed that a lot of people do not understand the weight that they are having to deal with right now, especially within digitisation. She added that the initiative in place will take a lot of pressure and weight off what the GHAMRO have to do within steps toward digitisation.
On his part, the French Ambassador to Ghana, Jules-Armand Aniambossou, stated that: “The French Embassy has invested heavily in initiating cooperation between France and Ghana in the cultural and creative industries (CCI), particularly in music. These efforts have been fruitful and have led to collaborations between French and Ghanaian artistes, concerts associating French and Ghanaian artistes in Accra and Paris, and a dialogue on the collective management of copyright in Ghana.
“I am delighted that it led to a co-constructed project that will benefit both our countries by stimulating the private sector in the music industry. It shows the will of both France and Ghana to renew their relationship and will be followed by a project called Creation Africa-Ghana to support young entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative industries.”
In an interview, the Deputy Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku-Mantey, mentioned that the copyright system in Ghana is going through challenges when it comes to the tracking of users of the rights despite numerous successes.
“The evolution of our copyright system in Ghana has gone through some challenges although we’ve also chalked some successes. One of the challenges is a system that monitors the users of the rights, radio stations, TV stations, performers, live performers and all of that. So, people collect the money alright, administrators collect the money for maybe GHAMRO; but they do not know who gets what because there’s no data to back that decision-making.”
Mr. Okraku-Mantey disclosed that the MoU will help with getting the technology onboard and sensitising the industry people. He urged Ghanaians to learn and engage expert societies, such us Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM) situated in France, to be able to sanitise the environment.
