The leadership of the Broadcasting Organisations Of Nigeria (BON) has appealed to the Federal Government to ease the business of broadcasting in Nigeria.
It made the call on Tuesday at a meeting with the Minister of Information and Culture and the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) were issues regarding the licences regime and how to actualise the Federal Government’s digital switchover were discussed.
BON Chairman, Mr John Momoh, told journalists after the meeting, held behind closed doors, that the challenges faced by broadcasters in the country were top on the agenda.
“I sought the audience of the minister so that we can let them know that there was a lot of haemorrhaging in the industry and that a lot of our members are finding it very difficult to operate,” he said.
Beyond the concerns that broadcasters had, the BON leadership cleared some of the misconceptions about the digital switchover at the meeting.
“We had a lot of agreements in terms of (the government) working with us to ensure that we do not have a situation where we will not be able to operate as broadcasters,” Mr Momoh said.
In all, the BON chairman said the meeting was satisfactory.
The Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, and the NBC DG, Ishaq Modibbo- Kawu, who described the meeting as a success agreed that there was the need for government to work with BON and save the broadcast industry.
“The entire meeting is to ensure the survival of the industry and to ensure that the industry thrives,” he said, adding that the good thing about the meeting is the conclusion that both sides have to work together.
For the NBC DG, the relationship between the regulator and BON is central to the health of the broadcast industry, which plays a critical role in national development.
He added, “The issues that were raised today and which we attempted to clear, one after the other, just strengthens our resolve that we need to work together to sanitise our industry and to assist the industry to grow.
“Broadcasting is very central to national development and the kind of work that our broadcasters are doing over the last couple of years has shown that Nigeria has tremendous potential that we are also gradually beginning to fulfil.”
