Ghanaian musician, Kirani Ayat, has refuted claims by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman about an agreement for collaborating on projects.
This follows Akwasi Agyeman’s claim that Kirani has been unavailable for intended projects anytime they reach out to him despite the Authority’s willingness to collaborate with him.
In an interview on Hitz FM, November 18, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman provided an update on the settlement reached between the government and musician Kirani Ayat in the aftermath of their 2022 copyright infringement lawsuit.
In 2022, the musician took on the Tourism Authority for using portion of his music video for a promotional content without his consent.
President Akufo-Addo’s account on X posted the video which featured scenes from Ayat’s single ‘Guda’ on the occasion of World Tourism Day on September 27, 2022.
Fast forward, the Authority held a meeting with the musician and compensated him and pledged that “moving forward, Ayat and GTA will collaborate on a number of projects aimed at showcasing Ghana, our beautiful landscapes, and exciting talents to the world.”
However, the CEO, Akwasi Agyeman in an interview on Hitz FM, November 18, revealed that when the government reached out to the musician, he was unavailable for their intended project, despite their willingness to collaborate with him.
“We reached an agreement and a settlement. And then in that agreement we said going forward we will work together. So this was somewhere in the middle of the year. So when we were doing our December programme, we reached out to him and his team, because he is from Navrongo.
“We are even keen and eager to have programmes in other parts of the country apart from Accra, Cape Coast, Takoradi which is dominating the December in GH calendar. And he said they were not ready. Since then we have not actually heard from him. So we haven’t been able to go the whole nine yards with him,” he said.
Reacting to a video of Akwasi Agyeman’s interview on X, Kirat Ayani described the claim by the Tourism Authority CEO as “lies”, stating that the CEO has not been responding to call by his manager.
“This man, he no dey answer my manager’s call. All be lie,” he wrote on X, November 18, 2024.
🤣 THIS MAN, HE NO DEY ANSWER MY MANAGERS CALL. ALL BE LIE. https://t.co/CPgTxXne0q
— Kirani Ayat + The Spireeet 🌍 (@KiraniAYAT) November 18, 2024
Meawhile, Akwasi Agyeman has said that the authority is still open to working with Kirani Ayat when he is ready.
