A new collective society, the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO), formed to manage the rights of music owners, has finally taken over from the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA).
GHAMRO�s certificate to operate as a collective society in the country was approved by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice on December 23, 2011 and was officially presented to its board members at a short but impressive ceremony in Accra on Wednesday, January 18.
The certificate of operation was presented to the board members of GHAMRO, led by Carlos Sakyi, by the Registrar General of Ghana, J.K Halley on behalf of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu.
Under the copyright regulations, the certificate presented to GHAMRO has given the organisation the mandate to manage the music rights of music owners and also issue licenses to music users such as night club operators, hotels and drinking bars among other facilities operating in the country.
This has brought to an end the operations of the Interim Copyright Management Team (ICMT) which was put in place to manage the operations of COSGA.
Established under Section 2 of Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2009, Act 788, the ICMT commenced operations in April 2010 with the primary objective of restructuring the copyright sector, collecting and distributing royalties, overseeing COSGA�s liquidation and finally ushering in the new collecting societies.
The ICMT, during its operations acquitted itself creditably, having surmounted most of the monumental challenges it faced during the restructuring of the copyright sector.
All key objectives have been achieved and the ICMT brought its operations to an end to make way for GHAMRO.
In a short remark, Carlos Sakyi, who received the certificate on behalf of GHAMRO said for the first time in the history of the music industry, the music rights owners were going to manage their own business.
�The day marked the beginning of success for the music industry in Ghana,� he noted.
At the ceremony two other societies, Copy Ghana and ARSOG were also presented with their certificates to manage the rights of members.
Stanley Sackey received the certificate on behalf of ARSOG and Dr. Kwesi Annoh received on behalf of Copy Ghana.
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