GHAMRO Distributed GH¢1,433,571.43 to Its Members From 27 July 2026, Its Strongest Digital and International Collection Since 2011, While Its Own Operating Licence Stays Unconfirmed

Deal sheet

Status

Figures confirmed by three independent contemporaneous trade reports that agree to the cedi and reconcile arithmetically. GHAMRO's own operating licence status is NOT established and is the central open question. No GHAMRO official is named in any of the three reports of these figures.

Type

Distribution

Parties

Ghana Music Rights Organization

Amount

GHS 1,433,571

Rights covered

No ownership of any musical work or sound recording changed hands. This is a collective royalty DISTRIBUTION, not a transfer of rights. GHAMRO ADMINISTERS collectively managed rights in musical works on behalf of its members under Ghana's Copyright Act, 2005 (Act 690), and DISTRIBUTES to those members the royalties it COLLECTS from music users who hold a licence from it. It does not OWN the underlying works, which remain owned by the writers, composers and publishers who are its members, and it is not a distributor of recordings in the commercial sense. The GH¢1,433,571.43 distributed falls in four categories, which reconcile exactly to the total: background music GH¢500,000.00 (covering Q1 and Q2 2026); digital mechanical GH¢706,149.55 (mainly Q3 and Q4 2025); digital performance GH¢160,641.88 (mainly Q3 and Q4 2025); and live performance GH¢66,780.00 (mainly Q3 and Q4 2025 on two of the three reports, period unspecified on the third). The single highest royalty recipient receives GH¢121,000, which is 8.44 per cent of the entire distributable pool.

Territory

Ghana. The collections distributed arise from licensed music use inside Ghana and from international royalty income reaching GHAMRO through reciprocal arrangements with foreign collecting societies under CISAC standards and the CIS-Net infrastructure. The distribution itself is to GHAMRO's own members.

Announced

2026-07-21

Primary document

Trade press

Sources

Pulse Ghana, 21 July 2026, read directly 26 October 2026 · MyJoyOnline, 20 July 2026, read directly 26 October 2026: total distributable GHS1,433,571.43 from 27 July 2026; background music GHS500,000.00 (Q1-Q2 2026); digital mechanical GHS706,149.55; digital performance GHS160,641.88; live performance GHS66,780.00; single highest recipient GHS121,000; first personalised royalty statements; strongest digital and highest international collections since 2011; WIPO Connect, ACRCloud, CIS-Net, CISAC; 'The prolonged licensing impasse continues to limit the organisation's ability to maximise local collections'. No official named. · Citi Newsroom, 21 July 2026, read directly 26 October 2026: third independent report, identical figures. Resolves the licensing ambiguity in the other two reports: 'GHAMRO's biggest hurdle remains the unresolved issue surrounding its operating licence' and 'The Office of the Attorney General must bring certainty to the licensing process', alongside the separate point that 'Every business that uses music without paying licence fees is effectively enjoying someone else's creativity for free'. No official named. · Trade report, 1 June 2023, read directly 26 October 2026: GHAMRO's operating licence withheld by the Attorney General through the Copyright Office, announced at GNAT Hall, Accra. Rex Omar, Chairman of the Interim Directors: 'We will still collect [the royalties] by law until we get our licence. That is one thing, distributing is another.' Renewal documentation submitted June 2022; Copyright Office letter of 17 May 2023 imposing further conditions; report states GHAMRO would be unable to distribute until the licence was renewed. · Trade report, 4 February 2026, read directly 26 October 2026: musician Akosua Agyapong alleged on a TikTok Live session of 1 February 2026 that GHAMRO 'don't have a licence, but they are still collecting our money'. GHAMRO CEO Jackson Brefo responded that the licence has not been revoked and has no expiry date, that documents were submitted to the Attorney General for validation, and that 'the AG has not communicated its approval or disapproval of the operations of GHAMRO'. · Trade report, 19 January 2026, read directly 26 October 2026: establishes Jackson Brefo as GHAMRO chief executive in post before the July 2026 distribution. 'We are positioning GHAMRO to be the best collective management organisation in Africa.' On dual affiliation: 'If you are a member of PRS, you are not mandated to take your royalties in GHAMRO…your money is going to be paid to PRS.' Five-year strategic plan, quarterly stakeholder webinars, migration from manual systems to a digital platform. No licence discussion, no collection or distribution figures. · Trade report, 14 October 2026, read directly 26 October 2026: D-Black, 13 October 2026, 'only 15 Radio and tv stations in the country out of 700+ pay royalties to the collection society'. Named compliant stations include Joy FM, Hitz FM, Asempa FM, Adom TV, Adom FM, Luv FM, Nhyira FM, Joy Prime, Pent Radio, Pent TV, Citi FM, Channel One TV, PCG TV, Hope FM, Lucky TV. GHAMRO CEO named as Jackson Brefo. Reports that Ghana Broadcasting Corporation has not paid despite losing a court case to GHAMRO. Section 36 of Ghana's copyright law cited for the user licensing obligation. · Trade report, 15 October 2026, read directly 26 October 2026: GHAMRO published the compliance list via a post on X on 14 October 2026, stating it recognised 16 radio and television stations, against more than 700 broadcasters across Ghana. The reproduced list carries 17 line items, one of which ('News') appears to be a parsing artefact. No GHAMRO official named. · Trade report, 23 September 2026, read directly 26 October 2026: GHAMRO CEO Jackson Brefo on the scope of the user licensing obligation, citing Section 37(2) of the Copyright Act, 2005 (Act 690). 'The law is not biased towards any entity. There is no mention of church in the law but it says that a person who intends to use the work of an author or causes the work of an author to be performed in public.' Church of Pentecost, Assemblies of God and the Methodist Church named as compliant.

Read this before citing: ESTABLISHED: THE FIGURES. Three independent trade reports dated 20 and 21 July 2026 give identical figures: total distributable GH¢1,433,571.43; distribution commencing 27 July 2026; background music GH¢500,000.00 (Q1 and Q2 2026); digital mechanical GH¢706,149.55; digital performance GH¢160,641.88; live performance GH¢66,780.00; single highest recipient GH¢121,000. The four categories sum to exactly GH¢1,433,571.43, so the breakdown is internally consistent and complete, with no unallocated residual. Digital categories together are GH¢866,791.43, or 60.46 per cent of the pool.

ESTABLISHED: THE RECORD CLAIM, AS GHAMRO'S OWN CLAIM. All three reports carry GHAMRO's assertion that it has recorded its strongest digital collections and its highest international royalty collections since the organisation was established in 2011. This desk reports that as GHAMRO's claim about itself. No audited financial statement supporting it was located, and GHAMRO publishes no distribution accounts that this desk could retrieve, so the claim is not independently verified.

ESTABLISHED: THE TRANSPARENCY MEASURE. For the first time, every beneficiary receives a personalised royalty statement identifying the revenue streams and accounting periods behind their payment. GHAMRO attributes its improved collection to WIPO Connect, ACRCloud, CIS-Net and CISAC reciprocal standards.

NO NAMED OFFICIAL, AND THAT IS NOTABLE. None of the three reports of this distribution quotes any GHAMRO officer by name or title. This is not a gap in this desk's reading: the figures are presented institutionally, without attribution to a person. GHAMRO had a sitting chief executive at the time, Jackson Brefo, who gave an on-record interview published 19 January 2026 in which he said 'We are positioning GHAMRO to be the best collective management organisation in Africa'. A body announcing a record distribution without putting an accountable name behind the numbers is a reportable observation, and this desk does not fill the gap with a guess.

TWO DIFFERENT LICENSING PROBLEMS, ROUTINELY CONFLATED. (1) GHAMRO'S OWN OPERATING LICENCE. Announced at a press conference at the GNAT Hall, Accra on 1 June 2023, GHAMRO's operating licence was withheld by the Attorney General through the Copyright Office. Then interim board chairman Rex Omar said GHAMRO had submitted renewal documentation in June 2022 and that the organisation remained mandated to collect but, in his words, 'We will still collect [the royalties] by law until we get our licence. That is one thing, distributing is another', the report recording that GHAMRO would not be able to distribute until the licence was renewed. NO DOCUMENT LOCATED BY THIS DESK CONFIRMS THAT THE LICENCE WAS SUBSEQUENTLY RENEWED. On 4 February 2026 it was reported that the musician Akosua Agyapong alleged in a TikTok Live session on 1 February 2026 that GHAMRO 'don't have a licence, but they are still collecting our money'. GHAMRO's chief executive Jackson Brefo responded that the licence has not been revoked and does not carry an expiry date, that documents were submitted to the Attorney General for validation, and that the Attorney General 'has not communicated its approval or disapproval of the operations of GHAMRO'. One of the three July 2026 reports states that GHAMRO's biggest hurdle remains the unresolved issue surrounding its operating licence and that the Office of the Attorney General must bring certainty to the licensing process. (2) MUSIC USERS NOT TAKING LICENCES FROM GHAMRO. Separately, the reports state that businesses and broadcasters using copyrighted music without obtaining appropriate licences reduce the revenue available for distribution. These are distinct problems and this record does not merge them.

CONTRADICTION, UNRESOLVED AND REPORTED AS SUCH. The 2023 position on the record was that distribution could not proceed until the licence was renewed. GHAMRO distributed in July 2026. No document located establishes that the licence was renewed in between, and GHAMRO's own position is that it was never revoked and that the Attorney General has neither approved nor disapproved. This desk does not assert that the July 2026 distribution was unlawful, and no party has said it was. It asserts only that the licence question was open on the most recent document available and that GHAMRO distributed while it was open.

BROADCASTER COMPLIANCE: COUNTS CONFLICT ACROSS DOCUMENTS. GHAMRO published a list of complying broadcasters via a post on X on 14 October 2026. GHAMRO said the list recognised 16 radio and television stations. The musician D-Black, who raised the issue on 13 October 2026 after being shown the list, wrote that 'only 15 Radio and tv stations in the country out of 700+ pay royalties to the collection society'. One reproduction of the list carries 17 line items, one of which ('News') appears to be a parsing artefact rather than a station. This desk therefore reports the count as GHAMRO's stated 16 against more than 700 broadcasters, flags that reproductions give 15 and 17, and does not silently harmonise them. Joy FM, Hitz FM, Adom FM and Adom TV, all Multimedia Group Limited stations, appear on every version of the list read; other Multimedia stations including Asempa FM, Luv FM, Nhyira FM and Joy Prime appear on some reproductions but not all, so this record says at least four rather than asserting a precise group total. It was also reported that the state broadcaster Ghana Broadcasting Corporation has not paid despite losing a court case to GHAMRO; this desk did not retrieve the judgment and does not treat the litigation history as established.

NOT ESTABLISHED, AND NOT INCLUDED. Remarks attributed to Sarkodie on Akoma FM around 20 October 2026, and a counter-argument attributed to Dr Benjamin Oduro Arhin of the University of Education, Winneba, were considered for context but no primary or trade document for either was retrieved and read, so neither appears in the published piece. GHAMRO's membership total, its gross collections for the periods distributed, its administrative deduction rate and the number of members receiving a payment could not be established: GHAMRO publishes no retrievable distribution accounts and no figure for any of these appears in the three reports.

NOT A RIGHTS TRANSFER. Nothing here moves ownership of any master recording or musical work. Anyone reading this as a catalogue transaction has misread it.