Excitement as COSON team breezes in from South Africa with good news

L: Chukwuji & Okoroji

A team of the COSON Management which went to Johannesburg to improve the sharing of collective management technology between Nigeria and South Africa came back to the country over the weekend with good news and excitement.

 The delegation, which was made up of the society’s General Manager, Mr. Chinedu Chukwuji and Head of DataTech, Mr. Isa Aruna, SHOWBIZPLUS learnt visited Southern Africa Music Rights Organization (SAMRO) to build up on already existing relationships to explore the best ways in which African repertoire can be well documented and compensated.

One of such is a Pan African shared solution known as the Pan African Repertoire Database, which is set up via the establishment of a common Pan African IT platform. The Pan African shared solution is targeted towards ensuring more efficient documentation and monitoring of the use of the repertoire belonging to African right holders.

The project which may have the participation of other key African societies like Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK), Uganda Performing Rights Society (UPRS), and Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (ZIMURA) as pilots is expected to redefine the operations of copyright collective management in Africa

Speaking on his trip, Mr. Chukwuji said, “The Pan African Repertoire Database is a welcome development for African music collecting socities. It will go a long way in reducing the cost involved in managing individual databases and will also make it a lot easier to license African works used anywhere around the globe.”

It will be recalled that just recently, the Chief Executive Officer of SAMRO, Mr. Sipho Dlamini was in COSON to strengthen ties between Nigeria and South Africa in music copyright management.