National President of Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria(PMAN), Mr Pretty Okafor, has disclosed his plans to provide ย upcoming musicians with loans to support their careers.
He told the newsmen on Friday that the idea was informed as a result of several complaints from musicians about the commercial banks denying them loans.
According to him, this would get them busy with work, while keeping them off the streets .
โPlans are huge for the year, thereโs a programme weโve been able to initiate, where every registered member of the union can go to the bank and submit their intellectual property.
โTheir collateral is what is in their heads, their intellectual property is what theyโre going to be banking on for the loans .
โBefore now, Intellectual properties were not recognised in Nigeria, we are going to start now, a singer can wake up in any state he finds himself and submit his intellectual property as collateral for the loan .
Okafor explained that musicians got discouraged ย because whenever they approached a bank for loan, the banks would ask them for huge collateral.
โHow will they bring collateral when they donโt even have food to eat and their parents donโt even have property?
โOnly registered members can access the loans, a musician can walk up to the bank and get a loan and submit his intellectual property as collateral. The loan is going to be like a grant.
โWe are doing this, so that our musicians donโt litter the streets anymore,โ he said.
Okafor said that his regime was introducing the new generation and now have a uniform system where Musicians can enjoy welfare and other working structures.
Weโve been able to harmonise the states, so we are moving to actualise our plans, musicians are going to have welfare,with health insurance, pension plan and much more.
In the past four years, we have been here pushing the industry forward, running the association and some people have been trying to form a faction.
โIn my tenure young musicians are coming for meetings, coming together to run the association, people in my exco are Sunny Neji, Rugged Man,Tu face, Mi, Zacky Azzay, Asa Gangali and Terry G.
โThis has never happened before, we are working hard to re-orientate upcoming musicians, โ ย he said.
NAN
