President Buhari has approved 67 New Broadcast Licences in Nigeria.
67 new broadcast licences have been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, bringing the total number of licences granted by the administration since 2015 to 473.
The Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, yesterday announced the approval in Abuja and stated that the commission would soon begin issuing licences. He described the approval as a significant step forward for pluralism and free speech.
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According to him, 47 of the newly licenced organisations were FM Radio stations, five were community Radio stations, and four were DTT Radio stations.
Currently, there are 740 operational broadcast stations in the country, and the list is expected to grow with the president’s approval.
Ilelah also disclosed that the president had authorised the NBC to hire additional personnel to monitor broadcast stations in all regions of the country and acquire state-of-the-art equipment for nationwide broadcast monitoring in preparation for the upcoming election.
He added that despite the difficulties in implementing the Digital Switch Over (DSO), the commission was determined to deliver life-changing digital broadcasting to Nigerians using Simulcrypt and in collaboration with NTA Star Nigeria and ITS. Additionally, the NBC disclosed that 302 stations have been sanctioned for violating the four-month-old 2023 electioneering campaign.
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Mrs. Franca Ayitor, Director of NBC Broadcast Management, provided a breakdown of the number of authorised stations.
She stated that the erring stations have two weeks to pay the fines; otherwise, the fines will increase.
According to Ayitor, 17 stations were issued fines and 196 were issued warnings. She reported that 63 stations were cautioned and 93 were reprimanded. She also mentioned that 70% of stations had paid the fines.
Ayitor stated that the affected stations did not adhere to the guidelines for the content and quality of political programming that were developed by the commission and shared with the stations.
