The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has said it had sanctioned 302 stations in the last four months.
It announced the approval of 67 licences for new broadcast stations.
The commission’s Director General, Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, announced this at a media briefing yesterday in Abuja.
Ilelah said between September 28, 2022, and January 31, 2023, the commission sanctioned 302 out of the 740 current functional stations for various offences.
According to the breakdown, 17 broadcast stations were fined for contravening the broadcast codes; 196 stations received warnings; 93 were reprimanded, while 67 were cautioned.
On the issuance of new licences, Ilelah said the approvals bought to 473 the number of licences issued under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The NBC boss said the latest approval “is a great milestone in furthering pluralism and freedom of expression”.
He said the number of functional broadcast stations in Nigeria now stands at 740.
Ilelah said President Buhari had approved 67 new licences, making a total of 473 new broadcasting licences.
He said in 2018, the President approved 210 licences; okayed 159 licences in 2019; 32 others in 2020; five in 2022; and 67 this year.
Stressing the independence granted the commission by the President from any form of political interference, Ilelah said: “This has helped immensely in the reduction of violations by broadcasters as we used to see before.”
Ilelah also said the monitoring of broadcast stations was on.
The NBC boss said a Central Monitoring Committee (CMC) has been set up to provide a rapid response to unethical practices.
Consequently, he said the commission got presidential approval to recruit new workers to help in the discharge of its mandates.
The commission, he also said, got approval to acquire modern nationwide broadcast monitoring equipment with artificial intelligence for monitoring the activities of broadcasters.
Ilelah urged broadcast stations that had not settled their outstanding dues to do so.
The NBC boss stressed that the ongoing legal tussle, notwithstanding, dues are statutory and they must be paid.
He said the commission has secured a new building for its training institute.
The broadcasting institute, according to him, will be a must for all broadcasters, starting with the newly licensed stations.
The new edifice would serve as a training hub for all broadcasters, Ilelah added.
The BNC boss also said the commission had introduced SIMULARYT to drive its Digital Switch Over (DSO).
The SIMULARYT is a software that makes it easy for a viewer to have a box and have more than one satellite on it.
Ilelah said a viewer no longer needs to buy different decoders, adding: “With this new initiative, you can have more than one decoder.”
He stressed that the NBC has become independent of any political interference and advised the media to also avoid any bias to any political group.
The NBC boss also urged broadcast stations to eschew all forms of unethical practices.
