MUSIGHA receives $20,000 from Ecobank Ghana for music digitalisation

ECOBANK Ghana Limited has donated $20,000 to the Mu­sicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGHA) to help them digi­tise their music for long term storage and sales.

This is an initial seed money into a fund that would further at­tract more contributions for the country’s creative arts.

The initiative is in support of past efforts by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank Country Office to make the indus­try a lucrative one.

Speaking at an event to offi­cially hand over the check to the leadership of MUSIGHA, theEx­ecutive Director and Group Cor­porate Bank Head of Ecobank, Mrs Rosemary Yeboah, said her outfit was a Pan-African bank with the interest of helping to de­velop all the sectors of the conti­nent’s economy to impact positively on the lives of the peo­ple.

She observed that the world was going digital with the growth of information and communica­tion Technologies (ICTs) and as a result, it was critical for musicians and other players in the creative arts industry to change their works to conform to the changes of the time.

According to her, that is the surest way they will get the maxi­mum returns from their work.

She said Ecobank was going to continue with its support for such industries as the creative arts which would then put money in the pockets of people.

The Country Director of the UNDP, Mr Kamil Kamaludeen, said Ghana’s economy was in­creasingly growing and as a result all micro sectors needed to be ex­panded to make room for many people with talents.

He decried the widely held perception that the arts industry was a preserve of individuals who had failed in life.

He said growth in all such sub­sectors would expand employ­ment opportunities for more young people to develop their po­tentials.

He said Ghanaian culture and arts had a huge potential that could propel national development.

He appealed to other like­minded organisations to also sup­port the UNDP’s initiative tosupport such sectors.

Receiving the check on behalf of MUSIGHA, the Union’s Presi­dent, Mr Bice Osei Kufuor, said work on digitising songs by Ghanaian musicians had already begun and the support by Ecobank was going to boost efforts at bet­tering the lives of Ghanaian musi­cians.

He noted with regret that sev­eral songs created by Ghanaian artistes had been allowed to disap­pear because neither the authors nor the union had done anything to preserve them.

According to him, players in the creative arts are bemg denied the maximum benefits for their ef­forts as a result.

He expressed gratitude to ECOBANK and UNDP, whiles calling for more support to that ef­fect.

Source: Daily Graphic