N7bn debt: FG offers broadcast stations 60% relief

The Federal Government yesterday said radio and television stations in the country were owing license fee to the tune of N7 billion.

The government, however, approved 60 percent debt forgiveness for all debtor broadcast stations in the country.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, stated this in Abuja yesterday while briefing newsmen on the Federal Government’s interventions to ensure financial sustainability among broadcasters in the country.

The minister explained that the debt forgiveness only applied to debtor stations that pay 40 percent of their existing debt within the next 3 months.

"Any station that is unable to pay the balance of 40 percent indebtedness within the 3 months window shall forfeit the opportunity to enjoy the stated debt forgiveness," he said.

Mohammed said the existing licence fee is further discounted by 30 per cent

for all Open Terrestrial Radio and Television services effective July 10th, 2020

The minister explained further that the debt forgiveness shall apply to functional licensed Terrestrial Radio and Television stations only.

The debt forgiveness and discount shall not apply to pay TV service operators in Nigeria, he added.

He said the measures were to ease the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the broadcast industry, which, he said, had been experiencing falling revenues occasioned by the dwindling adverts and sponsored programmes.

He also said the Federal Government was exploring how to soften the impact of the pandemic on the newspaper industry.

"The Federal Government has made these interventions with a view to re-positioning the Broadcast Industry to play its critical role of promoting democracy and good governance in Nigeria.

"It is our expectation that the sector will cash in on this unique opportunity to make itself an effective catalyst for national development," the minister said.

Meanwhile, Acting Director-General, National Broadcasting Commission, Prof Armstrong Augustine Idachaba, said there was no going back on the implementation of payas-you-go service for the pay TV service providers.

"That is the way to go with pay TV service, so that Nigerians are not forced to pay what they do not consume," he said.