The National
Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on Monday announced the extension of time line
from March 15 to 31 for broadcast stations to meet their licence fees
obligation.
The Director-General of
the Commission, Malam Is’haq Modibbo-Kawu, made this known to newsmen at the
National Headquarters of the NBC in Abuja.
The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the director-general recently revealed that some
stations owed more than N5 billion as licence fees.
He warned that the commission
would be invoking the relevant laws against erring stations.
He said that all
stations were expected to complete all payments owed the commission on or
before March 15.
Modibbo-Kawu, however,
said that after consultations, the time line was being extended to March 31,
adding that stations that refuse to offset their licence fees would be shut.
He noted that some
stations have persistently refused to pay their licence fees.
The director-general
said that even the statutory act of informing NBC, six months before expiration
of licences and signification of intention to continue as licensees was
wilfully ignored by them.
“ There is no plan by
many of these stations to pay; while some even have the temerity to write NBC,
the regulatory institution, that the amount they are obliged to pay is too
much.
“Consequently, they
then tell us how much they are willing to pay, and even adding the time they
are going to pay such sums that they have decided to pay.
“In truth, a pattern of
gross indiscipline and misbehaviour has been central to the relationship which
many of the licencees had established in the past with the NBC.
“There are those who
used political connections with the top most political leadership of Nigeria in
the past to get illegal and undue favours that run contrary to the NBC Act and
the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
“That is the only way
they have operated and it is the way they know. But this is a new era at the
NBC and in Nigeria,’’ Modibbo-Kawu said.
The director-general
reiterated that all outstanding sums owed the NBC would be collected, stressing
that after the new deadline, any station that decline to pay would be shutdown.
“Let me re-assure our
colleagues that we do understand that these are difficult economic times in our
country, but that cannot be justification for not meeting lawful obligations.
“Some of these licence
fees were due even before the economy entered a recession; it means that they
had refused to do the right thing even in a period of economic normalcy.’’
He recalled that the
NBC had directed in the last two weeks that 54 companies that were issued
licences but had refused to pay their fees within the mandatory 60-day window
be revoked.
According to him, there
is another list of over 120 licences that were paid within the mandatory period
but were unable to come on air, within the mandatory two years.
He disclosed that those
stations are also being processed for revocation, adding that frequencies
cannot be held indefinitely by individuals.
The NBC boss noted that
the commission was delighted that Nigerians are investing in setting up radio
and television stations which create jobs and open up accesses for content
producers to showcase talents.
“But no one has a right
to hold on to allocated frequencies indefinitely, when the resource itself is
finite and there are other people waiting and ready to make use of those
frequencies,’’ the director-general declared.
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