Their collaboration, featured on Sarkodie’s “Jamz” album, saw Inkboy contributing the hook to the track.

However, despite their partnership, Inkboy claims that Sarkodie has failed to include him in the music video and has not paid him his share of the royalties.

In a series of tweets, Inkboy expressed his frustration, stating that while he appreciates the opportunity to collaborate with Sarkodie, he expects to be compensated fairly for his contributions.

He clarified that their collaboration was not a free endeavor on his part, and he deserves to receive his rightful share of royalties.

Despite reaching out to Sarkodie multiple times and expressing his grievances, Inkboy claims that his demands have not been met.

He spoke on the importance of transparency in the music industry and called for artists to be compensated fairly for their work, rather than being offered exposure as payment.

“People are tired of collecting ‘exposure’ as payment, who work suppose chop Isn’t this how things are supposed to be? Transparency now seems like a big deal,” Inkboy added.

Sarkodie and his management are yet to address Inkboy’s public outcry.

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Rita who appeared on Personality Profile, noted that although a lot of film makers are working hard in their various fields, what will make their lives better is royalties known in the film industry as residuals.

“It will be nice for actors in Africa to have their royalties so that way people are not struggling when they get older, which has been the challenge in the industry for some old actors. They have been struggling financially and that shouldn’t be so. These are people who have done major films, been involved in major films and all that and then all of a sudden when they are old, they are struggling financially. Meanwhile, their films are still being played on YouTube, on all these platforms and they are even getting royalties or getting monies from them,” she said.

Most film industries in Africa have bemoaned lack of proper systems to get residuals from audio visual content consumed by the public.

Residuals are financial compensations that are paid to the actors, film or television directors, and others involved in making TV shows and movies in cases of the cable reruns, syndication, DVD release, or licensing to streaming media.

The actors guild in Nigeria has always said that from television airings to streaming, every new licence should count as additional wages for them too. In Ghana, the Audiovisual Right Society of Ghana (ARSOG) has also come under criticism for failing to equitably distribute residuals for its members.

In Rita’s interview with Lexis Bill, also intimated that actors need to manage their finances well so that they don’t find themselves in penury later on in life.

“Maybe some of us need to invest more, do more financial planning, and understand that the work will not always keep coming,” she further noted.

According to her, although some actors are pressured to spend a lot to keep up with their celebrity lifestyles, she has always lived within her means.

“It is expensive as well, having to support the brand or the the celerity status which is why you have to know how to spend our money.

I do not [feel pressured]. I am not one of those. I definitely don’t feel pressured. Some do, which is why they feel the need to do other things to keep up their appearance,” he stated.

Rita, a colossus in the Nigerian film industry, was in Ghana as a speaker at the Women of Valour Summit organised by media personality Nana Aba Anamoah.

Other women who spoke at the event were Ghanaian film producer Shirley Frimpong-Manso, South African broadcaster and actress Bonang Matheba, among others.

In his view, the said amount if true falls far short of what Ghanaian artistes truly deserve.

Shatta said such a meager amount will not even cover basic expenses like studio recording fees, let alone sustain an artiset for a year’s worth of airplay.

He cited how he was able to buy three houses with just a single collaboration with Beyoncé to buttress his point.

Despite his disappointment, Shatta Wale expressed hope that GHAMRO would improve its methods and offer better support to Ghanaian artistes in the future.

He was happy platforms like YouTube, Apple Music, Audiomack, and his Distrokid account give him money noting that, relying solely on GHAMRO for royalties wouldn’t have sustained his career.

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According to him, GHAMRO now collaborates with an Irish company that helps to identify the songs being played on all radio and TV stations across the country and also come up with a new payment system.

In an interview on Happy FM, Mr Omar explained that, unlike previous years when an artiste’s album among others, influenced how much he or she got paid, the new system will indicate which song was played from which artiste, the time it was played, how long the song was played, the radio station that played the song and every other detail.

He told the host, Doctar Cann that, “the system will aggregate the number of songs of each registered artiste that were played and then from the logging, we know which artistes to pay and how much to pay them.”

Mr Omar added that now, the number of songs from an artiste that is played will determine how much money they will earn as royalties.

“Last December, we logged over 131 radio stations across the country. We know that some people’s songs are played at parties but not on radio, so in order not to disrupt the system and have people complaining that we are only paying those whose songs have been logged, we decided to give 60% to every registered musician so that the 40% goes to those whose songs were logged,” Mr Omar added.

This, he explained, is part of the many efforts GHAMRO is making to ensure that artistes are essentially paid their due.

In September 2021, GHAMRO announced new measures to aid in their royalty collections.

He revealed that his outfit had signed a deal with a new digital royalty collection body, Capasso.

According to him, Capasso collects the digital royalties for artistes and right owners as part of GHAMRO’s efforts to digitalise its operations to enable creators earn their due from their works.

Speaking in an interview with JoyNews’ Mapitso Sebidi, Mr Omar explained that this deal ensures that the digital rights licensing company provides monitoring systems to help track songs of Ghanaian right owners on digital platforms.

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According to him, this occurrence must be blamed on the ruling government.

Speaking on Happy FM, he explained that the Government through the Ministry of Finance has refused to pay the due levy to musicians, making it hard for GHAMRO to disburse any money to musicians this December.

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According to him, GHAMRO has been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and all efforts to get the Government to come to their aid has proven futile.”

When Covid-19 came, we made a request through NBSSI but they didn’t give us any money. The money we had, we shared it among our people in April to support them.

We originally had about 37 staff, laid off 20 and reduced the salaries of the 17 by 70 percent, he added.

Rex Omar insisted that if there was anyone to blame for this mishap, it should be the Government and not him.

The former member of GHAMRO, Akosua Agyapong has accused the current GHAMRO Chairman, Mr Rex Omar of misappropriating funds collected by the organisation as music royalties.

Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem’s anti-corruption segment, Fabewoso, on Wednesday, Madam Agyapong and another former member of GHAMRO, Mr Awuku Hagan slammed the current Board over non-payment of royalties.

According to them, the monies retrieved by GHAMRO as music royalties were way higher than monies distributed to registered musicians under the umbrella of the music rights organisation.

“GHAMRO has a lot of money but just being heartless with the people. They have failed to pay royalties due creative art workers while we wallow and die in poverty. GHAMRO is hurting musicians,” Miss Agyapong fumed.

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Reacting to this on the same Dwaso Nsem morning show on Adom FM on Thursday, Mr Omar rubbished allegations made by Miss Agyapong and Mr Hagan.

“They are doing politics. Akosua Agyapong and some people wanted to get license from Attorney General to also collect royalties but they were denied.

“Awuku Hagan supporting her was also staff in Carlos Sekyi’s administration. When we came, we sacked him and he is peeved. We didn’t see what he was doing,” Mr Omar explained.

What baffles Mr Omar’s mindset is that in the previous administration of GHAMRO which included Miss Agyapong, there was never an annual report although it was required by law.

In response, Miss Agyapong said the Attorney General didn’t halt her moves to own her own music royalties collection agency.

“If you go to many African countries, there are so many collection societies, he should say the truth that outside, how many collection societies do we have? We were not denied, she told us to sit down and talk; they should be very careful,” she said.

According to them, GHAMRO as an organisation responsible for the collection and distribution of royalties to musicians and all other creative workers in Ghana, has not been diligent with its duties.

According to them, some of their colleagues cannot even boast of a car tyre despite the numerous sources of revenue on their works.

Ghanaian female highlife artiste and television personality, Akosua Agyepong and Mr Awuku Hagan, speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem’s Anti-Corruption segment, Fabewoso, lamented the plight of their colleagues over non-payment of the royalties.

“GHAMRO has a lot of money but just being heartless with the people. They have failed to pay royalties due creative art workers while we wallow and die in poverty. GHAMRO is hurting musicians,” Miss Agyepong fumed.

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They mentioned public music users including radio and TV stations, hotels, night clubs, pubs, event organisers, barbering shops and shopping malls as some sources of revenue to GHAMRO.

They further alleged some members are paid as low as GH¢ 50.00, GH¢100.00 and GH¢120.00 as royalties.