The Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry (GAPI), made up of music producers in the country, on Monday organised a forum at the Teachers’ Hall in Accra for all the stakeholders in the music industry to find solutions to the numerous problems confronting the industry in Ghana.

At the forum, which attracted a large number of stakeholders including music producers, musicians and music publishers, a wide range of issues affecting the progress of the music industry were discussed, including the organization of elections to elect a substantive board to manage the newly formed collective society, Ghana Music Right Organization (GHAMRO).

The essence of the forum was to gather stakeholders’ views on the way forward.

The stakeholders, who are all members of GHAMRO, also deliberated on the formation of the Collective Management Organization (CMO).

At the forum, they proposed that the congress be held in four months for the election of a substantive board to manage GHAMRO.

The stakeholders, deliberating on the way to manage the Collective Management Organization, proposed the formation of sub committees to review the constitution, with participation of the stakeholders to oversee the conduct of free and fair elections.

They declared that the current GHAMRO board could stay for a period of three months until the election of a permanent board.

They were of the view that the current board should be made to account to the stakeholders before resources were channeled into the election.

Speaking at the forum, Nana Kwame Ampadu I confessed that he was part of those who agitated for the removal of Alhaji Sidku Buari as the chairman of the then Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA).

He noted that he had regretted his decision because Sidiku Buari had worked tirelessly towards the building of a vibrant music industry in Ghana.

Alhaji Sidiku Buari is a former president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) and a former vice president of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) who appealed to government during his tenure to waive duty on musical instruments to enable musicians acquire their own set of instruments, and also succeeded in championing the passage of the Copyright Law C690 to protect the interest of all copyright music and other stakeholders.

According to Nana Ampadu, those who took over from Alhaji Sidiku Buari had done more harm than good to the industry, adding that there were people who should be shown the exit.

He stated that the music and the creative industry witnessed massive enhancement during Alhaji Sidiku Buari’s era.

He emphasized that the industry did not only need fresh people to manage affairs but people with required competence and commitment to push for vast improvement in the music and the creative industry.

Some of the stakeholders who attended the forum included Kojo Antwi, Rex Omar, Obour, Nana Kwame Ampadu, Opoku Asiedu, Yaw Osborn, Jewel Ackah and a host of others.