Renowned highlife musician and National Democratic Congress (NDC) advocate for creatives, Rex Omar, has underscored his party’s dedication to establishing robust intellectual property frameworks for the creative industry in Ghana.
He emphasized that a critical focus of the NDC’s agenda is to overhaul the country’s royalty collection system, which has long been plagued by inefficiencies.
Speaking at Joy FM’s Manifesto Debate on Creative Economy, Rex Omar pinpointed the absence of clear legal stipulations on royalties as a major hurdle for creatives.
He explained that current systems, particularly for music royalties, operate on a flat-rate basis, which fails to account for the actual usage of intellectual property, leaving creatives undercompensated.
“There is no law that specifies how much every music user, including media houses, must pay based on the actual duration of use. So if, for example, a media company has played 100,000 minutes of music, there’s no legislation to determine how much they should pay. We’re still using a flat-rate system,” Rex Omar remarked.
The NDC, if voted into power after the December 2024 elections, intends to resolve this issue by introducing legislation that will clearly define the royalty rates for media outlets and other music users.
Rex Omar stressed that this legislative reform would bring Ghana in line with global standards, where intellectual property users pay based on actual usage.
“This is not just about collective management organizations like GHAMRO, ARSOG, or CopyGhana. It’s about enforcing fair payment from music users. The NDC plans to introduce clear legislation to ensure creators are compensated fairly,” he noted.
Ghana’s current system, managed by organizations such as the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), the Audiovisual Rights Society of Ghana (ARSOG), and CopyGhana for literary creators, has faced widespread criticism for its inefficiency.
Many creatives have expressed frustration over receiving little to no royalties, largely due to the lack of a robust regulatory framework.
The debate, part of the 5th edition of Joy FM’s Showbiz Roundtable, featured representatives from both the NDC and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Sadiq Abdullai Abu and Rex Omar represented the NDC, while the NPP was represented by Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku-Mantey, and the CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman.
Rex Omar’s stance reflects the NDC’s broader commitment to prioritizing the creative sector’s intellectual property concerns, offering a clear legislative pathway if elected into power.
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