The chairperson, Governing Board of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Animi Silvanus-Pepple, has said that the Commission is grossly underfunded and had inadequate offices and staff to effectively tackle issues of piracy in the country.

Ms Silvanus-Pepple, who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, called for more funding and approval to collect copyright levy to enable it to discharge its mandate effectively.

The copyright levy order was gazetted in 2012 but still awaiting the approval of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to enable the Commission to begin its collection.

“We intend to meet with relevant authorities and try to let them understand why it is important that we have that approval to go ahead with the collection.

“The poor state of revenue or funds for the Commission is a strong reason for that approval to be given. The Commission is grossly underfunded if you bear in mind that the Commission’s mandate covers the entire federation.

“Right now, the commission is operating in only 14 states out of the 36 states,” the chairman said.

She recalled that the board was told during an interactive session with relevant stakeholders that the Commission had only 324 staff in the entire federation with 14 offices.

“From the briefing, we were made to understand that the Commission has only one building which is in a dilapidated state.

“Even for the other states that the Commission is in, the accommodation is rented. Some are just a room, some are just two rooms.

“We begin to see that the Commission needs to have the appropriate infrastructure in terms of buildings and places to work in.

“There is also need to have more staff in the Commission to carry out their work.

“Right now, the Commission has offices in 14 states.

“And the Commission has been given powers such as the power of investigation, power of arrest, power of prosecution, power of confiscating materials that infringe copyright. So, that is a lot of work,” Ms Silvanus-Pepple said.

The board chairman said that the Commission needed a huge amount of money from the government and the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to carry out its work, adding that the copyright levy order would help in IGR.

“We believe that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning is aware of all these issues around funding and will not hesitate to approve,” Ms Silvanus-Pepple said.

The NCC was established under section 34 of the Copyright Act (Cap C28, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004). It was first inaugurated as the Nigerian Copyright Council on August 19, 1989.

It was elevated to the status of a Commission in April 1996 and administrative change was confirmed by the Copyright (Amendment) Decree 1999.

The Commission is responsible for all copyright matters in Nigeria, including the administration, regulation, enforcement and prosecution under the Copyright Act.