Disclose Fees Owed By Broadcasting Stations In Nigeria, Group Urges NBC

Posted by Eric Ojo Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Monday, September 12th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has asked the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to disclose to it the status of payment of license fees by all broadcasting stations and platforms operating in Nigeria and the amount of indebtedness of each of the stations owing license fees.

The NBC is a parastatal of the Federal Government of Nigeria established by Section 1 of the National Broadcasting Commission Act, Cap. NII, laws of the Federation, 2004 and vested with the responsibilities of, amongst other things, regulating and controlling the broadcasting Industry in Nigeria.

The Commission’s mission is essentially to evolve defined standards in all aspects of broadcasting to effectively licence, monitor and regulate an environment that encourages investment and development of quality programming and technology for a viable industry, which competes favourably in the global information society.

In a request made pursuant to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011 and signed by MRA’s Communications Officer, Mr. Idowu Adewale, the organization asked the NBC to provide it with a list of all broadcasting stations and platforms operating in Nigeria licensed by the Commission and the amount that each of the licensed stations is required to pay as license fees.

The FOI request was addressed to the Director-General of the Commission, Mallam Balarabe Ilehah.

MRA requested in the application the status of payment of each of the licensed broadcasting stations from the date of its license to date of the request, adding that for those licensed broadcasting stations that are indebted to the Commission, it should disclose the amount of indebtedness of each of the stations and the period covered by the amount.

Apart from that, the group said, for broadcasting corporations that are owned by various state governments, which were included in the list of broadcasting stations whose broadcast licenses were announced by the Commission as announced by its Director-General in his press briefing on Friday, August 19, the NBC should provide a breakdown of the amount of indebtedness by each of the radio stations and each of the television stations owned by the respective State-owned broadcasting corporations.