Africast 2008 was Positive for Nigeria – Bolarinwa

Yomi Bolarinwa, director general, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has said that Africast  Conference and Exhibitions held in Abuja last October was a positive development for Nigeria, as issues discussed during the event were relevant to the global trends in the broadcast industry.
This he said at the end-of-year media luncheon in Abuja last week, which had in attendance members of the press, representatives of the Ministry of Information as well as staff of the NBC.
Bolarinwa observed that Africast saved the economy good money in foreign exchange on airfares and hotel bills abroad, which Nigerians would have had to spend looking for the materials that were made available at the conference and exhibitions.
However, the NBC boss said that Africast 2008 brought home the story of digitisation, and people who were present at the event arena saw the latest digital broadcasting equipment in the market, as well as demonstration of terrestrial television and radio broadcasting; adding that reactions elicited from the public have been a good testimony to the success of the broadcast summit.
Bolarinwa urged broadcasters to be updated on the trends in the global broadcast industry so that they do not be left behind especially in this digitised era. “We must maintain an acceptable level of quality in our video and audio outputs; this is the only way to attract reasonable investment into the industry,” he stated.
He pledged the Commissions commitment to educating and sensitizing the Nigeria public on digitisation, and the dangers of second-hand broadcast receiver sets.
“Let me at this point appeal to state governments to refer to the Commission for assistance in the choice of broadcast equipment. In this era of transition to digital broadcasting, consultation will help them not to spend colossal sums of money buying worthless equipment, which will become obsolete in one or two years,” the broadcast guru warned.
Bolarinwa assured that the NBC has an “open door” policy and is ready to assist at all times; even as he informed that they shall continue to work with the legislature, the Nigeria Customs Service and the Standards Organization of Nigeria to ensure that the public buy only genuine digital-ready equipment and facilities.
He also informed that government is working on the legal framework for digitisation, which will soon be in place to ensure that Nigeria is not used as dumping ground for the analogue broadcasting equipment that are being scrapped in other parts of the world.
Recounting activities of the NBC during the year, Bolarinwa said they had imposed various degrees of sanctions on erring operators across the country. In Lagos zone, 29 stations were sanctioned on various grounds; Ibadan, Jos and Kaduna zones also had a dose of the Commission’s big stick while two cable stations were shut down for failure to meet the terminal deadline to fully digitize their operations.
Earlier in the week, the NBC held a forum with operators of terrestrial radio and television stations where they warned operators that it was no longer acceptable for any of them to default in the payment of licence fees, and the 2.5% return on turn over; stressing that from January 2009, any station that failed in its statutory payments to the Commission would be putting its licence on the line.
Also at the event, John Odey, former minister of Information and Communications, lauded NBC’s decision to make the family belt a one hundred percent Nigerian content belt, while urging broadcasters to put out materials that would uplift and ennoble our national psyche rather than denigrate and debase it.