COSON

The Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) is a collective management organisation (CMO) that licenses music users and distributes royalties for musical works to composers, authors and publishers. It was formed in 2010. Its Nigerian Copyright Commission approval has been a recurring point of dispute: NCC records and press reporting describe its licence as suspended or not renewed since 2019, with MCSN operating since as the NCC’s sole approved CMO for both musical works and sound recordings, a status COSON disputes.

In February 2026 COSON’s chairman, Tony Okoroji, held a press conference alleging that a former Attorney-General improperly facilitated MCSN’s approval and the withdrawal of criminal cases against it, and calling for the Federal Government to halt disbursement of a N1.2 billion private-copying levy tranche pending an equitable process. The allegations fed a motion adopted by Nigeria’s House of Representatives on 10 June 2026, directing its Committee on Justice to investigate.