…As Buhari okays 67 new licenses
No fewer than 302 broadcast stations were sanctioned by the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC in the last 4months, NewsSpecng learnt.
Currently, there are 740 functional broadcast stations in the country.
This was revealed by the the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah on Thursday at a briefing in Abuja.
Balarabe rolled out the commissions achievements in the last four months in the briefing in Abuja.
He said from the 28th September 2022 to 31st January 2023, out of the over 700 stations, 302 were sanctioned by the commission.
He added that the offences and punishment varied. He said 67 were cautioned , 93 reprimanded 17, fined.
Balarabe also revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari approved 67 new licenses, bringing the number of broadcast licenses, under the administration to 473.
The breakdown shows that in 2018, the president approved 210 licenses , in 2019, 159 licenses , while in 2020, 32 new licenses and in 2022 and 2023, 5 and 67 respectively.
Balarabe also disclosed that the commission has gotten approval by the president to recruit new staff as the commission is short staffed.
The commission, he also said has acquired a building for it’s broadcasting institute.
All new broadcasting agencies must past through this institute, he said.
The new edifice will serve as a training hub for all broadcasters. He added
He also said the commission has improved in the areas of technology to address the Digital switch over (DSO), noting that the commission has introduced the SIMULARYT.
The SIMULARYT is a software that makes it easy for a viewer to have a box and have more than one satellite on it. He said the viewer no longer needs to buy different decoders. With this new initiative, you can have more than decoder in a single decoder.
He asserted that the NBC is now independent from any political interference and advises the media to also avoid any bias with any political group.
The NBC boss also appealed to all broadcast station who are yet to pay their dues to do so, as it is mandatory for them to renew their licenses.
