Pull down your video from YouTube; GTA also accuses Ayat Kirani of copyright infringement

This comes after the Ghanaian musician called out the government for using an excerpt from his music video in a Visit Ghana campaign shared on H.E Nana Addo's social media accounts.

To mark World Tourism Day, the official social media accounts of the President shared a compilation of some tourist sites in Ghana with other videos that showcase Ghana's culture.

In the post by the President, an excerpt of Kirani Ayat's 'Guda' music video was used. According to the Ghanaian artiste, no one reached out to him, hence, he feels cheated and disrespected.

"The president of Ghana has used my video “GUDA” in this ad to promote Ghana. I was actively reaching out to the Ministry of Tourism in 2018/19 to use this video to push tourism in the North and got NO reply, yet today it’s in an ad and no one reached out to me for permission," he said in a Tweet that has gone viral.

The musician has demanded compensation from the government. However, according to the CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Ayat in the said music video also used certain National elements without asking permision from the responsible state institution.

"If we are going by copyright, then @kiraniayat has to pull his GUDA video down from YouTube. He used certain elements in the video without permission from the Folklore Board. He needs permission from the National Folklore Board," Kwasi Agyemang, the Ghana Tourism Authority CEO said on Hitz FM.

He added that "the GUDA video, before God and Man, I saw it for the first time on Tuesday. We didn't pick the video from YouTube. We got the raw footage from the agency". According to him, he "will not let this slide" because he "cannot let people continue to disrespect State institutions".

The post by Ayat has sparked controversy for two days now. He has been getting support from Sarkodie, Fuse ODG and other Ghanaian creatives.