The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alh. Mohammed Idris Malagi says Nigeria can no longer afford to remain as analogue nation and vowed to complete the process of the ongoing Digital Switch Over from analogue to digital broadcasting in the country.
The minister made the pledge yesterday during his official visit to the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC in Abuja.
He said, though the challenges of digitization has stalled for a very long time, Nigeria cannot no longer afford to remain as analogue
They are doing so much but much more need to be done.
He assured that the administration would do everything possible within its powers to see the realization of the objective in shortest time.
The Minister expressed optimism that the NBC has the potentials to realize the objective but requires some reforms and interventions in the area of funding, noting that most nations of the world had long left the analogue platform and migrated to the digital platform.
‘‘The challenges with digitization process have been there. That has stalled for a very long time. Nigeria cannot afford to still remain as analogue in terms of our broadcasting platforms.
‘‘Every other part of the world has moved on, I know there are challenges but we need to resolve that quickly and move on. We cannot continue in analogue position, even when smaller countries have moved beyond this point.
‘‘The NBC has the potentials to move ahead but some reforms have to take place before that could happen. They have the manpower, brain, skills, but only need to create the enabling environments for them to do the needful.’’
On funding, he said, ‘‘we will look at it but it is not just about funding but attitude,’’ saying that , ‘‘you cannot be throwing money over and over. Of course they will get funding but attitude and orientation have to change. They need to know that we are competing with other people.
‘‘You cannot be in the same position, doing same thing over and over and expect different result.’’
‘‘The necessary mindset has to be gotten first. Of course, the president is willing to put money in this sector, but has to channel it well because it is not money that will go down the drain,’’ he added.
Earlier in his address, the Director General of NBC, Mallam Balarabe Ilelah told the minister that the greatest challenge facing the commission was the prevalence of social media and over N3bn debt owed by broadcast stations and solicited for minister’s support to amend the NBC Act and to recover the debt..
He also solicited the support of the minister to digitize the broadcast license application processes where potential applicants will submit applications from the
comforts of their homes and track the progress of their applications. This, he said will be extended to other services the Commission offers.
However, the DG also sought the approval of the minister for the 3rd signal distributor as recommended by the board of the commission for smooth completion of the DSO project.
He however, informed the minister that the Commission has completed setting up a total of 28 State Offices, Ten Zonal Offices with a total number of staff standing at Four Hundred and Nineteen, adding that the Commission is now monitoring over Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seven Stations. Out of this number Six number Six Hundred and Nine are Radio Stations and One Hundred and Sixty-Eight are Television Stations.
‘‘During our monitoring activities, a total of 3,312 warnings were issued
in the 15t, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters of 2022 and 2023. In 2022 a total of 125 stations were penalized.
‘‘In 2023, a total of 1,238 warnings were given while during the same year 62 stations were penalized.
‘‘NBC has facilitated signing of agreement between ITS and NTA-Star Nigeria to actualizing this in the earliest possible time.
‘‘The Commission has recently faced some challenges following a Federal High Court ruling stopping NBC from penalizing erring broadcasters in a case where the Commission was not represented. We have already appealed the case. In another judgment on a similar case on the 4th of October, 2023 a high Court in Jos passed a judgment that National Broadcasting Commission has powers to fine.
‘‘The Artificial Centre is equipped with Ultra Modern Artificial with Ultra Modern
is Intelligence-driven system. This is in addition to the establishment of the Nigeria Broadcast Institute (NBI) which we hope will further professionalize the broadcasting industry.’’
The DG further requested the support of the minister for the Africast 2023, the Nigeria’s broadcast industry that draws participation from African continent and from all over the word, holding this month in Lagos.
The event is where broadcast regulators; content producers; content producers; manufacturers and dealers 5; communication policy makers and other stakeholders equipment from Africa and all over the world will be in attendance.
