Deal sheet
- Status
- NIGER'S COPYRIGHT OFFICE SAID IN FEBRUARY 2026 THAT A FIVE-YEAR COLLECTION FIGHT WITH TRANSPORT COMPANIES WAS OVER AND THAT ARTISTS WOULD "SOON" SHARE THE PROCEEDS. ITS OWN NEXT PUBLIC STEP, THREE MONTHS LATER, WAS A WORKSHOP TO REWRITE THE LAW AND A PROMISE OF A FUTURE MEETING WITH ARTISTS, NOT A PUBLISHED DISTRIBUTION.
The Bureau Nigerien du Droit d'Auteur (BNDA) is Niger's sole statutory body for collecting and distributing music copyright and related-rights royalties, operating under the technical supervision of the ministry responsible for culture.
THE STATUTORY DUTY. Ordonnance N 2010-95 of 23 December 2010, on copyright, related rights and traditional cultural expressions, assigns BNDA both halves of the job in single clauses. Article 27: the equitable remuneration for private copying "est percue et distribuee par le Bureau Nigerien du Droit d'Auteur," collected and distributed by BNDA. Article 64: broadcast or public-communication remuneration for a commercial phonogram is paid by the user to BNDA and split 50 per cent to the producer, 50 per cent to the performers. Article 79: BNDA holds exclusive statutory authority in Niger to issue exploitation licences and to "percevoir et repartir les redevances," collect and redistribute the royalties; venues and broadcasters cannot obtain an operating authorisation from any Nigerien administration without first producing BNDA's own licence.
THE CLAIM (25 FEBRUARY 2026). Director Zarami Fadji Katiella told Niamey's state press that modern transport companies, organised under the Organisation Patronale des Gares Modernes du Niger (OPGM), had agreed to pay an annual flat fee per company, ending what she called "5 ans de bras de fer" (a five-year arm-wrestle). She named mobile operators Moov Niger, Zamani Telecoms, Airtel Niger and Niger Telecom, the Canal+ satellite bouquet, and the company Nestle as users who "se sont toujours acquittes de leur redevance a temps" (have always paid their royalty on time). She said artists would benefit "bientot" and "dans un avenir proche" (soon, in the near future). No amount, no distribution date and no ceremony were announced.
THE OLDER RECORD (21 NOVEMBER 2018). The same director told a different reporter: "Nous avons mis en place plusieurs strategies mais il est difficile de faire les recouvrements normalement" (we have put several strategies in place but it is difficult to carry out collections normally). The same report stated that no official royalty-distribution ceremony had been organised by BNDA "depuis plusieurs annees" (for several years), and that artists had stopped believing royalties would come; that specific framing is the reporter's own narration, not a quoted artist.
THE MIDDLE RECORD (6 MARCH 2020). Artists on record were criticising BNDA's "systeme des distributions forfaitaires" (flat-rate distribution system) as derisory. One figure survives: a flat group payout that "peut atteindre trois a quatre millions par groupe" (can reach three to four million per group), with neither currency nor period stated. Fadji's on-record response was that Niger's legal framework was not behind other countries', and that the shortfall was caused by "l'imperfection du processus d'enregistrements des oeuvres artistiques dans les registres par les regisseurs" (imprecise logging of which works were broadcast, by the station staff who keep the logs BNDA uses to calculate payouts).
THE FURTHER RECORD (18 MAY 2026). Three months after the "soon" promise, BNDA's next dated public act, reported by Niger's national press agency, was a workshop, opened on behalf of the youth, sports and culture ministry by its secretary general, to validate a draft ordinance meant to replace the 2010 text with rules suited to digital use and regional harmonisation. At the same event Fadji announced a first-ever "Rentree du Droit d'Auteur" (RDA), described as a dialogue framework between BNDA and artists. No date, venue or further detail was given, and no distribution was announced.
NET FINDING. A specific, named collection win in February. A specific, named legislative and dialogue process in May. No distribution total, ceremony date or payment, in either month or in the eight years of reporting examined before them.
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- Bureau Nigerien du Droit d’Auteur
- Amount
- XOF Not disclosed. No annual collection total and no distribution total has ever been published by the Bureau Nigerien du Droit d'Auteur (BNDA), under any tariff, in any source checked. Two concrete monetary figures surfaced and neither is a total: a penalty of close to 100,000 CFA francs for commissioning piracy, reported in 2018, and a reported flat-rate ("forfaitaire") group distribution that "peut atteindre trois a quatre millions par groupe" (can reach three to four million per group), reported in March 2020 reporting that states neither the currency nor the period covered. The transport-company agreement reported in February 2026 and the telecom, satellite and food-company payments named alongside it carry no amount in the source checked.
- Rights covered
- STATUTORY COLLECTING-SOCIETY COLLECTION AND DISTRIBUTION RECORD ONLY. No master recording, composition or publishing right changes ownership, or is assigned, licensed, administered or distributed differently as a result of anything recorded here. This records what Niger's sole statutory collective management body has said it collects, under Ordonnance N 2010-95 of 23 December 2010, and the absence of any published distribution total against the duty to distribute imposed by Articles 27, 64 and 79 of that ordinance. It is not a rights transaction.
- Territory
- Niger
- Announced
- 2026-05-18
- Primary document
- Trade press
- Sources
- Agence Nigerienne de Presse (ANP), Niger's state news agency, "Niamey : Le BNDA organise un atelier de validation du projet d'ordonnance sur le Droit d'auteur et expressions culturelles traditionnelles," published 18 May 2026. THE FURTHER RECORD this deal turns on: three months after BNDA promised artists a "soon" payout, its next dated public act was a workshop to validate a new draft ordinance, opened by Abdoul Rachid Abdoul Baki, Secretaire general of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, at which director Zarami Fadji Kacthella announced a first "Rentree du Droit d'Auteur" as a BNDA-artist dialogue framework, with no date given for either the ordinance's adoption or the RDA, and no distribution announced. Fetched and read in full. · Le Sahel / ONEP (Niger state press), "Droit d'Auteur au Niger : Les artistes jouiront bientot des fruits de leurs efforts," by Aichatou H. Wakasso, published 25 February 2026. THE CLAIM SIDE OF THIS RECORD. Carries director Zarami Fadji Katiella's direct account of the Organisation Patronale des Gares Modernes du Niger (OPGM) agreement ending a five-year dispute, the named list of telecom, satellite and corporate users paying on time (Moov Niger, Zamani Telecoms, Airtel Niger, Niger Telecom, Canal+, Nestle), and her statement that artists would benefit "bientot" / "dans un avenir proche," with no amount or date given. Fetched and read in full. · Music In Africa, "Droits d'auteur et redevances au Niger," by Boureima Balima, published 21 November 2018. THE OLDER RECORD. Carries Fadji's on-record admission that normal collection is difficult, and the report's own statement that no official distribution ceremony had been held "depuis plusieurs annees," plus its framing that artists had stopped believing in royalties. Fetched and read in full. · Studio Kalangou, "Le BNDA / La bete noire des artistes nigeriens," published 6 March 2020. THE MIDDLE RECORD. Carries artists' criticism of BNDA's flat-rate ("forfaitaire") distribution system as derisory, the undated, uncurrencied "trois a quatre millions par groupe" payout figure, Fadji's defence of Niger's legal framework, and her attribution of the shortfall to imprecise station logging by "regisseurs." Fetched and read in full. · Studio Kalangou, "Zoom sur le Bureau Nigerien des droits d'auteur et sa collaboration avec les artistes nigeriens," published 16 January 2021. Confirms BNDA's stated mission (collecting and redistributing royalties) and names officials and guests present (Omar Salifou, regional president of the Association Nigerienne des Auteurs Compositeurs et Interpretes de la Musique; Adamou Batoure, Directeur de la documentation et de la repartition des droits at BNDA) at a radio broadcast on the subject; carries no direct quotes from either man. Fetched and read in full. · Organisation Africaine de la Propriete Intellectuelle (OAPI), hosted full text of Niger's Ordonnance N 2010-95 of 23 December 2010 "portant sur le droit d'auteur, les droits voisins et les expressions du patrimoine culturel traditionnel." THE STATUTORY TEXT. Article 27 (private-copying remuneration collected and distributed by BNDA), Article 64 (broadcast remuneration paid to BNDA, split 50/50 between producer and performers), and Article 79 (BNDA's exclusive statutory authority to license, collect and redistribute). Fetched as a binary PDF and extracted with pypdf; read in full across 36 pages. · Africultures SPLA directory listing for BNDA. Checked specifically for a founding date after that date appeared in this desk's own company-directory record; the page gives no founding date, only CISAC membership from 15 October 1997, a postal address, and a listed website (www.bnda.ne.wipo.net) that does not resolve. Fetched and read in full; used here only to exclude the 1995 founding claim from this record, not to confirm it. · Wikipedia stub for BNDA. Names a director, Ganda Tahirou, with no date, inconsistent with every dated 2018-2026 news source checked; gives no founding date or statutory detail. Fetched and read; cited only for the director-name discrepancy noted in this record's caveats.
Read this before citing: WHAT COULD NOT BE ESTABLISHED, STATED PLAINLY:
(1) NO COLLECTION TOTAL AND NO DISTRIBUTION TOTAL. No source checked gives a franc figure for what BNDA has collected or distributed, in any year, from any category of user, under Ordonnance N 2010-95 or any earlier instrument.
(2) THE "THREE TO FOUR MILLION PER GROUP" FIGURE IS UNDATED AND UNCURRENCIED. The March 2020 reporting that carries it does not state the currency, the period it covers, or how many groups actually received a payout at that level. It cannot be read as an annual distribution total and is not treated as one here.
(3) WHETHER THE TRANSPORT-COMPANY AGREEMENT IS A SIGNED CONTRACT. The February 2026 account describes "un accord consensuel" reached after a meeting at OPGM's headquarters. Whether that consensus was reduced to a signed, dated instrument, and what the flat annual fee actually is, could not be confirmed from the source checked.
(4) NO DATE FOR THE "RENTREE DU DROIT D'AUTEUR." BNDA announced a first edition of this artist-dialogue framework on 18 May 2026 with no date, location or agenda. Whether it has since taken place could not be checked from this server.
(5) BNDA'S FOUNDING DATE IS NOT CONFIRMED FROM A PRIMARY SOURCE. A December 1995 creation date appears in this desk's own company-directory record, sourced there to a directory listing, but a direct fetch of that same listing for this piece found no founding date on the page, and Wikipedia's entry states none either. The 1995 date is not relied upon in this record.
(6) A NAME-SPELLING DISCREPANCY. The director is named "Zarami Fadji Katiella" in the February 2026 state-press account and "Zarami Fadji Kacthella" in the 18 May 2026 state-press-agency account; earlier reporting from 2018 and 2020 names her only "Zarami Fadji." Wikipedia's entry names a different person, "Ganda Tahirou," as director, with no date attached, which is inconsistent with every dated news source checked between 2018 and 2026 and is treated here as stale. "Zarami Fadji Katiella" is used in this record as the form closest to the fullest, most recent named source.
(7) NO WORKING BNDA WEBSITE. No bnda.ne domain resolves from this server. A listed address, www.bnda.ne.wipo.net, also fails to resolve. BNDA's only reachable public presence is coverage by Nigerien state media and the ministry responsible for culture.
(8) NO RIGHTS CHANGED HANDS. This record documents a statutory collecting society's collection activity and the absence of any published distribution against a statutory duty to distribute. No master recording, composition or publishing right is owned, assigned, licensed, administered or distributed differently as a result of anything recorded here.
