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During an interaction with Ghana's High Commissioner in the UK, Stonebwoy said "I am saying it here on camera, this is Stonebwoy, I am telling the truth, the amount I have ever gotten from making music as royalty from Ghana is two-thousand Ghana cedis".
His revelation shocked Papa Owusu Ankomah and other Ghanaians with The Ghana Music Rights Organization eventually responding to his claims.
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Stonebwoy and Papa Owusu Ankomah
“We sent Stonebwoy a thousand, and another thousand, that is why he spoke about ¢2,000. Now he is to follow up and update his records. If you have money for Stonebwoy today, if I do not have his bank account details, where do I send the money to? If there is money for Stonebwoy, the money will be here in GHAMRO’s accounts,” Abraham Adjetey, CEO of GHAMRO said.
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He continued “recently we had a meeting with him together, and he indicated to us that he will send somebody. In fact, we took some pictures outside, but to date, nobody has come back.”
He continued, “we have done some follow-ups, that is not to say because he has not done anything, but it is important for him to do his part so we can also send whatever money we have for him”.
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Abraham Adjetey
According to Abraham Adjetey since musicians and content creators want to reap from their intellectual properties they should also recognize that the Ghanaian economy is not fully developed like other Western countries.
He proposes that digitization will help address the current challenges, but a slow progression is also important. He revealed that under the law, GHAMRO is limited to only 30% of the revenues it collects.
“We cannot take the money we want, if we collect ¢100,000, GHAMRO is limited to only 30% used for lights, pay staff, operate and also do everything. It is an inhibition, but that does not mean we shouldn’t work,” he said.
Talking about GHAMRO's challenge, he said "we must admit GHAMRO has not done everything right. Our communication has not been very good, our relationship with members have not been one hundred per cent. So we are sorry we have not been up 100%.”
On the way forward, he said GHAMRO will however announce major policies this week that will bring a paradigm shift and change all musicians, composers and content creators are yearning for.