Akwasi Agyeman
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) says Kirani Ayat’s footage was legally acquired from an agency for the purposes of which it was used.
The Authority has therefore issued a statement refuting claims by Ghanaian musician Kirani Ayat concerning the use of his creative property without his permission.
“Our attention has been drawn to a tweet by @KiraniAYAT and a publication by GhanaWeb regarding a video produced by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), which has been shared on our platforms since 2019 and recently on the social media handles of the President.
“For the record, the footage in question was acquired legitimately from a bespoke creative agency as part of a project in 2019.
“According to Clause 2 (b) of the MoU signed with the Agency (Obligations: Responsibility of the Agency), the Agency was to “Deliver imaginative and impactful social strategies, such as content or documentaries for the use of GTA ‘as it so wishes,” excerpts of the statement said.
The GTA stated that the agency delivered the content to the Authority, and the Authority used the content in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement from which it was acquired.
“This video has thus been played severally locally and internationally without any issue. The content was used in accordance with the terms agreed with the agency and not as being alleged,” the statement added.
Kirani Ayat had called out the Presidency for using some portions of his music video in an advertisement without his permission.
On Tuesday, September 27, the President, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo shared a video to promote tourism in Ghana to mark World Tourism Day 2022.
In the video, which captures beautiful scenes of the country with a Voice over by the President, some portions of Kirani Ayat’s music video for his hit song “Guda” can be seen in the video.
The video was shared on Twitter and caught Kirani Ayat’s attention who subsequently called out the Presidency for using his music without his permission.
According to Kirani Ayat, the President used a portion of his “Guda” video in the ad, even though in the year 2018/2019, he got no reply after reaching out to the Ministry of Tourism to give him permission to use the said video to promote tourism in the north.
“The president of Ghana has used my video “GUDA” in this ad to promote Ghana. I was actively reaching out to the Ministry of Tourism in 2018/19 to use this video to push tourism in the North and got NO reply, yet today it’s in an ad and no one reached out to me for permission,” he wrote on Twitter.
The singer who deserves royalty on his music and intellectual properties, admonished the creator of the video, stating that he/she should have reached out and did due diligence before using his creative property.
“Whoever worked on this video should’ve reached out to the rightful content owners before proceeding. I spent my all in making GUDA possible, I’m sure you were paid for this job, where is my cut ?” he added.
By Vincent Kubi