Lumba charged me GH¢300k for a concert in 2012

Event organiser Nabil Alhassan has recounted a challenging experience he faced years ago when he attempted to organise a concert featuring the late Highlife legend, Daddy Lumba, and rapper Sarkodie.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z on October 5, 2025, Nabil recalled that the project never took off because Daddy Lumba charged an amount that was far beyond what he could afford at the time.

According to him, the late Highlife legend quoted GH¢300,000 as his performance fee in 2012, an amount Nabil said was extremely high in the events space back then.

The event organiser said that despite several attempts to negotiate a lower fee, Lumba refused to budge.

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“The next thing I wanted to do was Lumba and Sarkodie. Because I had a relationship with Sarkodie, it was okay, but at the time, I didn’t have any relationship with Lumba. In 2012, he charged me GH¢300,000. When I asked for a reduction, he gave the phone to a woman I believe was Odo Broni. When I was talking, he said, If I don’t have money, I shouldn’t call him again,” Nabil recalled.

Nabil explained that he tried to reason with the musician, breaking down the costs involved and pointing out that the venue he intended to use, the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), was already expensive.

“I said everything that I had to say. At some point, I even made an analysis. I told him we are doing it at the AICC auditorium, and I won’t get my investment back. All he said was that if I don’t have money, I shouldn’t call him. At the time, he didn’t want to hear anything,” he stated.

Ghana lost one of its most cherished musical icons, Charles Kwadwo Fosu, popularly known as Daddy Lumba, on July 26, 2025.

Individuals Daddy Lumba sang about and their role in his life journey

He died at the Bank Hospital in Accra, where he had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness.

Sources close to the family confirmed that the Highlife maestro was admitted days earlier and died at dawn.

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