Story by Dominic Hlordzi
A thirteen-member Board of Directors of the Reprographic Rights Organisation of Ghana (CopyGhana) has been inaugurated to serve a three-year term.
The Copyrights Administrator, Ms. Yaa Attafua, swore in the members. They took the oath of office and secrecy.
The Board:
The new Board Members are: Mr. Stephen Brobbey of the Ghana Publishers Association; Mrs Ohui Agbenyega Allotey, Ghana Association of Writers; Mr. Edward Yaw Udzu, Ghana Publishers Association; Mrs Agatha Akonor-Mills, Ghana Publishers Association; and Prof. Ellis Badu, Non-Fiction Author
The rest are: Mr. Dominic Hlordzi, Ghana Journalists Association; Nana Otuo Owoahene Acheampong, Ghana Association of Visual Artists; Mr. Asare Konadu Yamoah, Ghana Publishers Association; Mr. Matthew Mac-Kwame, Ghana Journalists Association; Mr Isaac Okwan Duodu, Ghana Union of Professional Photographers; Dr. Kwaku Mensah Ganu, Representative of Patrons; Mr. Ben Kwame Nyadi, Representative of Patrons and Mr. Joseph Baffour Gyamfi, Acting Executive Director of CopyGhana.
The immediate past Board Chairman, Dr. Kwaku Mensah Ganu admonished the new members of the Board to study the 2019 Constitution of the organisation and be conversant with provisions therein to enable them to work within the ambit of the law and contribute to the progress of the organisation.
Dr. Ganu also spoke about the need for the Board Members to be allegiant to CopyGhana to ensure that they serve the interests of all affiliate bodies and not their individual institution’s interest.
Election of new Chairman
After the swearing in, the Board Members had their first meeting where a new Chairman, Mr. Asare Konadu Yamoah of Ghana Publishers Association
and Vice Chairman, Mr. Matthew Mac-Kwame of the Ghana Journalists Association were elected.
The new Board Chairman of the Reprographic Rights Organisation of Ghana, Mr. Asare Konadu Yamoah thanked members of the Board for the confidence reposed in him and his vice.
He encouraged the Board Members to work as a team, saying the new Board has a lot of work to do.
“There are a lot of schools and institutions that we have to license and get them to honour their obligations for the use of the contents of members.”
Mr. Yamoah encouraged the new Board members to stand on the good works of their predecessors to build a formidable organisation.
Background
CopyGhana licenses educational institutions and other organizations where photocopying or digital copying are done on a mass scale and/or on regular basis.
It also collects reprographic fees from the licensed user institutions and other organizations where photocopying or digital copying take place on
a regular basis.
It then distributes the reprographic fees so collected to local and foreign rightsholders.