‘90% of Ghana’s broadcasting networks refuse to pay musician royalties’ – GHAMRO claims

The CEO of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO), Jackson Brefo, has made a shocking revelation regarding the failure of most media houses in the country to honour their obligations when it comes to paying royalties to musicians.

Speaking on GhanaWeb’s X Space on May 23, 2025, Jackson Brefo stated that nearly 90 percent of broadcasting networks in Ghana have deliberately refused to pay royalties owed to musicians for the airplay of their songs.

“Government does not do any business with GHAMRO. The only relationship government has with GHAMRO is as a regulator. The government does not support GHAMRO in any way. What we do in the public performance space is license musical works by collecting royalties from radio and TV stations,” he explained.

“More often than not, when you hear that musicians received GH¢100 or GH¢300 from GHAMRO, it’s because royalty generation is not static. Since we collect royalties from TV and radio stations, we can only distribute what we collect. And as a matter of fact, 90 percent of Ghana’s broadcasting networks have deliberately refused to pay,” he added.

Jackson also revealed that GHAMRO has been in a legal battle with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) for the past eight years over its failure to pay royalties.

“We have been in court with GBC for the past eight years. And not a dime has been paid from 2014 till date,” he stated.

However, he noted that GHAMRO is currently engaging with the National Communications Authority (NCA) to find ways to compel media houses to fulfil their royalty obligations to musicians.

“We are speaking with the NCA to include provisions in their regulations that would require a media house to settle its public performance obligations with GHAMRO before being allowed to generate revenue under the NCA,” he said.

Listen to the full X Space:

JHM/MA

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