The Zambia Association of Musicians – ZAM has requested for a goodwill grant that will help the association and their members lessen the economic impact that COVID 19 health restriction has put on their work.
The health restrictions imposed due to the COVID 19 pandemic has affected many areas of the economy, and players in entertainment industry are one of the most adversely hit. Musicians to be specific have now gone for over four months without being able to perform and get in their much needed incomes.
In the Zambian set up, most musicians generate the bulk of their revenues through live performances, through stage shows at restaurants, night clubs and other places that require some form of social gathering. But with the ban on mass gathering and closure of bars and nightclubs, many musicians (especially upcoming musicians) have found it hard to make ends meet.
The Zambia Association of Musicians – ZAM has encouraged their members to try the digital platforms like social media, YouTube as an alternative channel to generate incomes during this pandemic period.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, president of the Zambia Association of Musicians Tivo Shikapwasha stated that musicians must utilize digital platforms like social media to advertise and generate some income.
“We need to explore the digital platform and it is more imperative now more than ever. He further said that more and more people are using mobile phones and our pages are getting more and more visitors, so this is an opportunity for our musicians to interface with corporate entities through for instance advertising to create some sort of revenue stream for ourselves”, he said.
Shikapwasha confirmed that it is not currently mandatory for all musicians to join the association but the benefits of joining are numerous’. He said that an association is more important in times like this, as it makes it easier for a profession and its members to lobby for its interests and development.
“It’s an association not a regulatory body. So it’s not mandatory for an artiste to join but having said that, it is in the best interest for the artist to join. Some stakeholders or promoters would rather deal with an association that deals with the artist’s interests than work with an individual”,
Joining the association will help the artist travel to many place in and out of the country, so that the association also helps to develop skills necessary for the Musicians as well as help the members come to agreement on matters of common interest. However, Shikapwasha stressed that joining the association is not a route to get rich but it’s the best place to be if you wish to have access to many and much bigger opportunities as an artist and industry.
He reassured the musicians that the association will always be supportive and they understand that these are trying times. We will always support the musicians and our members from start to finish.
“We know that these are difficult times and it is easy for one to lose focus on the plans we had for the year in terms of input and output, in regards to production. Its very easy for us to get side tracked as we think of how we think of how we will feed our family. It is understandable but it’s important to know that the plans we made for this season may be affected but we must never lose focus”, he said.
The Zambian government has only given a meaningful stimulus package to mostly big corporate entities through the K10 billion covid 19 facility that is being administered through the bank of Zambia – BOZ.
Calls for coming up with a package for small and medium size enterprises – SMEs and some of the most affected sectors like the case of Musicians, bar and restaurant owners, lodge and private school businesses, media houses and others that have been adversely hit have been made but technocrats seem to be ignoring this perhaps most important need at this time.
Stimulus should not only be thought off as handing over cash grants or loans, but even specific industry and sector incentives that could lessen the impact of covid 19. As the lagged effects of the pandemic now start kicking in, government will come under severe pressure if no proactive actions are taken.
