The Chief Executive Officer of the Musical Copyright Society Ltd/Gte (MCSN), Mr. Mayo Ayilaran has called on the Federal Government to adequately fund the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) as an enforcement agency in the performance of its regulatory and enforcement roles in the protection of copyright.
Assessing the performance of the NCC in the last one year, Ayilaran while speaking with journalists expressed the view that the commission would have done much better if it was adequately funded by the Federal Government as an enforcement agency which could also generate good income for the government.
He consequently called on the National Assembly which has the power to approve the budget of the government, to look in the direction of the NCC in terms of adequate budget provision.
“The creative economy is Nigeria’s next crude oil and copyright protection is the corner stone of the sector, so the agency in charge of the sector, in this case the NCC, should be adequately funded to enable it discharge its statutory functions of protecting intellectual properties,” Ayilaran said.
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He cited among many things that the NCC lacks like vehicles, computers, enforcement officers and other key staffing which hinder its operations.
“The new copyright Act has given the commission more duties including the criminal prosecution of copyright violators but its resources are static or dwindling. If you consider the fact that NCC’s operations cover the whole Federation then you will appreciate the enormity of problems bedeviling the commission. These are the areas stakeholders expect the Federal Government to look into in order to generate more money into the Federation account and increase the GDP,” he added.
Ayilaran reiterated that the world has moved away from physical resources to the realm of intellect property where the future belongs, so every help to the Nigerian Copyright Commission today is an investment for the future especially with the dominance of the creative space by millions of Nigerian youths.
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE