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Tag: GHAMRO

  • Accountability will be my hallmark – GHAMRO Chair, Kojo Antwi

    Accountability will be my hallmark – GHAMRO Chair, Kojo Antwi

    53490021.295Newly sworn in Chairman of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO), Kojo Antwi has promised to be transparent and accountable to all members of the music rights body.

    The musician, together with eight other board members, was sworn into office as the new Chairman after he contested the position unopposed in Wednesday’s GHAMRO elections.

    About 3,700 members of GHAMRO cast their votes in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale to elect new board members for the music rights body. Wednesday’s elections were the first in GHAMRO’s 25-year history.

    Kojo Antwi, who was a member of the GHAMRO board that was dissolved by the Human Rights Courts in July 2014, speaking in an interview with Myjoyonline.com said accountability will be his hallmark.

    According to him, unlike Carlos Sakyi, “who served as the referee and the player,” he will be transparent. He promised to put in place measures to help musicians get full rewards for their works.

    The Carlos Sakyi-led GHAMRO board has been asked to account for more than GH?1 million said to have been misappropriated.

    Asked about the alleged misappropriation of funds, Kojo Antwi said the former board members responsible for managing funds have to account for every penny they used during their tenure. “They need to account [for the money]; this is stakeholders’ money. The money belonged to all of us.”

    “I think they are being asked to come and give accounts of their services … whatever we have to do” to get them to account for the funds must be done “because if I don’t live up to the oath [of office], I have to be prosecuted so I expect them to [do same],” he noted.

    The music maestro lamented that the revelation by the interim audit report “saddens me…It was a disappointment” because that board was blessed with some of the best hands in the music industry “but [they] failed.”

    Kojo Antwi revealed that he will organize a house cleaning exercise and re-register members of the organization.

  • Jewel Ackah fights Obour

    Jewel Ackah fights Obour

     

    jewel_Ackah
    jewel_Ackah

    One of Ghana’s prominent highlife musicians, Jewel Ackah, has descended heavily on the current administration of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) saying its President, Bice Osei Kuffour and his executives lack enough competence to manage the affairs at MUSIGA.

    The ace musician who sounded worried about the current state of the music industry told BEATWAVES in an interview last Friday in Accra that the elders of the Union have been sidelined by Obour and his cohorts who are rather inexperienced, heartless and do not have the welfare of the entire musicians at heart.

    Jewel Ackah also hinted that Obour had failed to involve elders of the industry in their decision-making process, and stressed that “the root cause of the problems facing the Ghanaian musician today is bad leadership, that is what we are seeing at MUSIGA right now.”

    According to him, Obour lacks better understanding of what he is doing and “as far as governing music is concerned, Obour has failed totally and has also failed to live up to expectation.”

    Jewel Ackah, who described Obour as a wrong choice for MUSIGA presidency explained that Obour had created more harm to the Union than good “and most of the musicians are not happy with him.”

    He stressed that there were several cracks including bad leadership in the Union, and it was high time the stakeholders came together to help find solutions to the numerous problems confronting the Union.

    The ace musician continued that “the sad news is that musicians in Ghana today have no idea what they are due, several donors have been said to donate to musicians’ fund and nobody knows how much and how those monies have been disbursed.”

    He also condemned the government for releasing the GH¢2 million (¢20 billion old currency) budget allocation to the creative arts industry to MUSIGA instead of the Music Council of Ghana (MCG).

    He said the circumstances under which the government released the money to MUSIGA alone was quite mysterious, especially when the Minister of Finance, in reading the budget statement, had stated that the money was meant for the creative arts industry.

    He told BEATWAVES that the stakeholders in the creative arts industry were unhappy because they have not been properly informed about how the GH¢2 million money was expended.

    He said the money that was given to MUSIGA was tax payers’ money, which he thinks should be accounted for.

    “I believe Obour should be made to acount for the money because we don’t know how the money was used.”

    On the issue of Ghana Music Right Organization (GHAMRO), Jewel Ackah said he personally does not see anything wrong with them, “they are doing a very good job and we need to support them. Fighting will not solve our problems. We need to come together and work as a team to meet the challenges ahead.”