… It’s landmark achievement for music industry, says PMAN president, Pretty Okafor
Songs of praises for President Bola Tinubu by musicians rented the air recently, as he disbursed a whopping N1.2 billion to the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria Ltd/Gte (MCSN), being the first tranche of the Copyright Levy, in line with Section 89 of the Copyright Act 2022.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, MCSN’s CEO, Mayo Ayilaran emphasised the support and roles played by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN); Minister of Finance, Wale Edun; Accountant General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi; and Director General, Nigerian Copyright Commission, John Asein, saying their efforts in ensuring the disbursement of the levy are “highly noted and greatly valued.”
According to Ayilaran, the payment is in tune with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu in making the Nigerian creative industry a viable sector.
“This is not politics but economic reality,” the CMO boss stated. “The copyright levy has been one of the legal provisions of Copyright Laws in Nigeria since 1988, but was never implemented until President Bola Tinubu came into power.
“The eventual disbursement of the fund will certainly reach the grassroots and every Nigerian creator, no matter where they are located, in order to begin to actually lift our poor musicians out of deep poverty.”
MCSN knocked those it described as “operating under various guises to confuse the copyright system” thus preventing it to deliver the desired results to the creators of musical works.
“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 recording is 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% a-piece.
“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 reads.
Ayilaran traced the history of CMOs in the world, emphasising that every country determines how its intellectual property, especially copyright, is protected within its territory.
He pointed out that 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 nation’s economy.
“RELPI, based on its 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), Warner Music Group (WMG), Digital Music Commerce & Exchange (DMCE), and Hypertek Digital.
“These entities are mostly foreign dominated and operate within the collective management system in their various home countries. The collective management systems in their various home countries, particularly UMG, WMG and SME, are operating very well with these entities as members either as publishers or producers.
“Coming to Nigeria, they are presenting the picture that nothing good works in Nigeria, without taking any step to support what the government is building through the MCSN, AVRS and REPRONIG; the three Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) operating in Nigeria.
“Lifting the veil a bit more, certain members of RELPI are agents or lawyers acting as agents of certain of these foreign entities, and as agents, they are merely fighting to protect and sustain their expected commission.
“In all, the activities and campaign of RELPI is for the foreign entities to take over the Nigerian creative market using the back door, through the cover of copyright ownership. This most certainly is against the fundamental national interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. It is also against the policy of the African Union, which is working towards making and establishing strong CMOs in its member-countries.
“Virtually all of the entities in RELPI are members of ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, PRS, SACEM, SAMRO, all in the United States of America, United Kingdom, France, South Africa to mention a few.”
MCSN, however, insisted that it would continue to administer the rights of ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, PRS, SACEM, and SAMRO in Nigeria and remit the appropriate royalties to them after deducting the appropriate taxes for the Nigerian government.
“This is one key area that the people in RELPI are apparently not considering. No Nigerian, not even RELPI can go to the USA, UK, Kenya or South Africa to dictate to the government of those countries on how they should run their copyright system. Nigeria will not give room to this,” the CMO affirmed.
Alluding to the fact that the collective management system is the only viable avenue through which the Nigerian government can effectively administer and enforce copyright, including the copyright levy scheme, Ayilaran disclosed that all Nigerian authors, composers, publishers, performers and producers of music are aligned with MCSN for the collective administration of their copyright.
“RELPI, on the other hand, has opted out of collective management system,” the CMO boss shared, asking rhetorically, “Can RELPI in all good conscience now want to benefit from the same system it has opted out of?”
While noting that the Copyright Act 2022 and its implementation has brought sanity and progress to the copyright system, particularly in the collective management of copyright, Ayilaran said this has effectively reduced, if not outrightly eliminated the confusion that has bedevilled the music industry for more than three decades.
In a related development, the Performing Musicians’ Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN) has commended President Tinubu for the disbursement of the first tranche of the copyright levy, describing it as a major milestone.
In a statement signed by its president, Pretty Okafor, PMAN congratulated the entire music industry and lauded MSCN’s CEO, Mayo Ayilaran for his diligence in advancing the collective administration of rights within the Nigerian music sector.
Expressing satisfaction with the release of the fund for the music industry, including PMAN, Okafor reaffirmed his commitment to transparency and protection of performing musicians’ rights, welcoming the disbursement as a “landmark moment for creators, performers, producers, and the broader creative economy -particularly because it signals that a long-awaited legal mechanism has begun to work in practical terms for the benefit of Nigerian right owners and performers.”
Acknowledging the roles of Minister of Justice and NCC DG, and all relevant institutions for their efforts towards the disbursement, Okafor stated that the Copyright Levy is not a new invention of industry actors nor is it a discretionary “gift” that can be administered without law.
“It is a statutory scheme expressly provided for under Section 89 of the Copyright Act 2022, which contemplates a levy on materials used or capable of being used to infringe copyright. The significance of this provision is straightforward: it reflects a deliberate legislative policy that recognises the realities of copying and reproduction in modern markets and creates a mechanism – through lawful collection and disbursement – to compensate right owners whose works are exploited.
“The levy framework also establishes that the relevant regulatory institutions of state, particularly the NCC, have statutory functions in relation to the administration of copyright and the disbursement ecosystem contemplated by the law.
“What matters most to PMAN is that the system is implemented with clarity, transparency, and strict accountability so that the intended beneficiaries – especially grassroots performers – can see measurable, verifiable outcomes,” he said.
According to Pretty Okafor, on July 1, 2020, PMAN, under his leadership, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with MCSN to strengthen cooperation around licensing compliance, enforcement support and protection of performing musicians’ rights.
He reiterated that the agreement has helped to further cement and safeguard the rights and welfare of performing musicians within the evolving collective management landscape in Nigeria.
“The purpose of such collaboration is not symbolism, it is to ensure that the protection of performers’ rights moves beyond theory into real-world outcomes, including improved compliance by users of music, enhanced royalty culture, and better economic conditions for the people who create and perform the music Nigerians enjoy everyday,” Okafor noted.
The PMAN president concluded by calling on the government, regulators, private sector stakeholders, and the general public to continue to support the Nigerian music industry, not only through commendable policy actions, but also through practical commitments that strengthen institutions, improve compliance by commercial users of music, and expand the welfare impact of copyright-driven revenues across all states of the federation.