As part of efforts to lift the creative industry, the Federal Government has released the sum of N1,205,956,580.20, being first tranche of the Copyright Levy under Section 89 of the Copyright Act 2022 to the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria Ltd/Gte (MCSN).

Announcing the receipt of the fund, MCSN stated that payment falls on all fours with the renewed hope agenda of the present government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make the creative industry a very viable sector in the Nigerian economy.

According to the Collective Management Organisation (CMO), the copyright levy has been one of the legal provisions of Copyright Laws in Nigeria since 1988 but never implemented until President Bola Tinubu came into power.

The CMO assured that the eventual disbursement of the fund will reach the grassroots and every Nigerian creator, no matter where they are located, as part of the measures to actually lift our poor musicians out of deep poverty.

“We are not unaware of the grumblings of certain interests fronting some Nigerian entities to continue with the unprofitable actions of more than 30 years to hold down the progress of the Nigerian music industry. They have been operating under various guises confusing the copyright system, thus preventing it from delivering the desired results to our creatives, particularly in the music industry.

“The latest of such antics is the one being peddled by Record Labels Proprietors Initiative (RELPI), which is falsely campaigning that they represent sound recording owners, without properly defining their status and interests.

“For a start, sound recordings are a shared interest between record producers and performers (performing musicians) whose performances were recorded. The rights in sound recordings are normally shared between the producers and performers, in certain territories at the ratio of 50 percent a-piece,” MCSN said in a statement made available to The Guardian.

“In Nigeria, most performers (performing musicians) whose performances were recorded in albums are direct members and assignors of MCSN, vis-à-vis many independent record producers and label owners. These are the real owners of sound recordings in Nigeria.

“The Performing Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN), which is the only legally recognised union/association of performing and employers of musicians (including recording producers and labels) has a subsisting agreement with MCSN with which MCSN represents the copyright interests of all performers and producers in Nigeria,” the statement read.

The CMO noted that every country determines how intellectual property, particularly copyright, is protected within their territories in line with relevant international bilateral and multilateral conventions and treaties.

“Nigeria is not an exception as it has in place its law, the Copyright Act 2022, under which copyright in seven or eight categories of works/rights are protected within the Nigerian economy and market.

“RELPI, based on their public statement and publication, consists of only nine entities, namely Mavin Record, Chocolate City, Davido Music Worldwide (DMW), Premier Records, Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME).