Covid-19 affects Cosoma’s licensing
Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) has said its licencing programme failed to make progress last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The copyright body’s executive director Dora Makwinja said Wednesday most of their activities, mainly licencing, were seriously affected because of Covid-19 restrictions and protocols.
“Most places of entertainment were closed and some of them remain closed and some even closed businesses and schools were closed meaning we could not licence them,” she said.
Makwinja also said that income for blank media levy also slightly went down citing political instability that the country experienced for a good part of the financial year.
“These and other challenges required us to review our licencing strategies to take into account the challenges experienced. Last year we were also dealt a heavy blow following the death of one of our top staff Rosario Kamanga,” she said.
Despite the challenges, Makwinja said the copyright body managed to carry out more activities than in any other financial year.
“We distributed over K500 million from broadcasting particularly Malawi Broadcasting Corporation and blank media levy. We also conducted more awareness programmes in the regions which has been a challenge in the other years and a new board was also appointed,” she said.
The new board for Cosoma is being headed by Maureen Masamba, who is also Book Publishers Association of Malawi President.
