Equity Bank Sued For Using 16-Year Old’s Boy Song Without Paying Sh10M Settlement

Eric Obiero Nyadida was only 16 when he composed music to promote Equity bank’s Wings to Fly scholarship programme, six years later, he has now moved to court to have the bank pay him upto Sh10 million among other constitutional and fundamental reliefs for the song.

Eric recorded the song while in Form Two at Maranda High School, he recorded it at Homeboyz Studio assisted by his manager John Kennedy who got him the opportunity to create an original piece of music to be used by Equity Bank for their Wings to Fly project.

The bank agreed to pay sh10 million for the song. However, the now 22-year-old says he has never received a cent from the bank yet his song is still being used in advertisements.

“I severally wrote letters to Dr James Mwangi and other people at the bank in which I got responses but at some point, they asked me to reduce the cash from Sh10 million to Sh2.5 million but I refused,” Nyadida says.

The court also heard that the bank had offered to settle the pending arrears with a scholarship but Nyadida turned the offer down.

When he kept pushing for his pay, Equity bank took him to court and accused the minor of attempting to defraud the Bank of Sh10 million. The case took 3 years in court and Eric was finally acquitted on October 3, 2017 after the prosecution failed to provide enough evidence for the offence.

Eric told Justice Wilfrida Okwany that he had to change schools and even repeat an exam as he spent a lot of time in court for an offence he did not commit, he also says has suffered mental anguish and violation of his property rights over the last six years.

The case is still ongoing.