Over 50 broadcasting stations across the country will know their fate next Friday when the ultimatum given to them to pay their license renewal fees by the National Broadcasting Commission [NBC] will expire.
The licenses of 54 TV and radio stations had been revoked for failure to pay for the licenses within a 60-day window.
But the revocation has turned the NBC headquarters to a Mecca of sorts in the last one week as representatives of television and radio stations besiege the place to either pay for their licenses or check the status of their broadcasting licenses.
Though checks by Daily Trust at NBC on Wednesday showed that some of the broadcast stations were already making payments, a lot of them were yet to pay.
NBC’s spokesperson, Hajia Maimuna Jimada confirmed to our reporter that “some licensees are making payments ahead of the deadline.” The deadline is March 31.
Many private and government owned broadcast outfits owe NBC N5bn as license renewal fees, according to the commission.
The NBC said if the defaulting stations failed to pay by March 31 they would be closed down by April 1.
The Director General of the commission, Mallam Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, told journalists at a press conference in Abuja that some of the licensees got licenses and failed to pay within the 60-day stipulated window, while another 120 licensees who had paid for and gotten their licenses would soon have their licenses taken back for failing to go on air in the last two years.
An NBC act empowers the commission to revoke any broadcast license that is not put to use two years after it is issued.
‘’Frequencies cannot be held indefinitely by individuals. We are delighted that Nigerians are investing in setting up radio and television stations; they create jobs; open up accesses for content producers to showcase talents and are contributing to national development. But no one has a right to hold on to allocated frequencies indefinitely, when the resource itself is finite and there are other people waiting and ready to make use of those frequencies,” Mallam Kawu said.
He noted that NBC understands that these are difficult economic times for our country, “but that cannot be justification for not meeting lawful obligations.”
He said some of the license fees were due even before the economy entered recession; it means that they had refused to do the right thing even in a period of economic normalcy.
Daily Trust learnt that most of the licenses revoked were the ones hurriedly issued to cronies of the immediate past government.
Our reporter learnt that a former petroleum minister, a powerful politician in the South-West and a publisher of an Abuja based newspaper were among those that lost their licenses.
Below are the names and locations of the 54 companies that have lost their broadcasting licenses for nonpayment of license fees, according to NBC;
1. Simonis Ventures Ltd. [Enugu]
2. Ryan Robinson Ltd. [Aba]
3. Rui FM Ltd. [Benin]
4. New Ideas Communications Ltd [Abakaliki]
5. Kevin Ejiofor Associates Ltd. [Enugu]
6. Heros Security Services Ltd. [Lagos/Port Harcourt]
7. Crown Integrated Pull Ltd. [Ondo]
8. Salama Radio Media Ltd. [Kafanchan]
9. Wright & Daniels Ltd. [Owerri]
10. BOB TV Ltd. [Enugu]
11. World View Broadcasting Services Ltd. [Owerri]
12. New Age Communications Ltd. [Kaduna/Plateau]
13. Bliss Broadcasting Ltd. [Kaduna]
14. Moore Entertainment and Production Ltd. [Benin]
15. Omicof Dynamic Concept Ltd. [Benin]
16. Heritage Broadcasting Ltd. Yenagoa /Ibadan/Warri/Enugu/Uyo/Calabar/Kaduna/Owerri/Makurdi/Kano/Ekiti/Yola/Abuja/PH
17. Yuma Consult & Associates Ltd. [Abeokuta].
18. I’Moving Ltd. Abeokuta
19. Flamingo Press Ltd., Abeokuta
20. Arabo Telecom Nigeria Ltd., Kano
21. Ryan Robinson Ltd., Uyo
22. Dazzling Communications Ltd. Yenagoa/Onitsha
23. Sahel Merchants Nig. Ltd. Daura
24. Greenhouse International Ventures Ltd., Abuja/Lokoja
25. Aman Media and Comm. Ltd. Asaba
26. D.O.M. Communication Ltd. Yenagoa
27. Chocolate Media Ltd. Jos.
28. Mustasons Broadcasting and Communications Ltd., Minna
29. GOA Broadcasting Links Services Ltd., Omu Aran.
30. MPS Global Services Ltd., Abeokuta
31. Xeus Nigeria Ltd., Calabar
32. AMX Logistics Ltd, Otukpo
33. Oscar Mamman Benjy Nig. Ltd., Kano/Katsina/Sokoto
34. DBL Prime Media Nig. Ltd., Abeokuta/Ibadan/Calabar
35. Global Falcons Nig. Ltd., Ibadan
36. Stella Constellation Group Ltd., Kano/Enugu
37. Cardinal Media Ltd., Warri
38. Vista Inter. Nigeria Ltd., Osogbo
39. Impactplus Comm. Ltd., Abeokuta
40. Rosenbek Nig. Ltd., Port Harcourt
41. Okisi Integrated Ltd, Owerri
42. Corporateman International Ltd., Epe
43. Riverdale MultiMedia Ltd., Ijebu Ode/Okene
44. Integrated Signalling and Telecoms Ltd., Owerri
45. E-Tech Dev. System, Keffi
46. Rhembel Holdings Ltd., Akure
47. El-Shamah Ventures Ltd., Osogbo
48. Echorok Nig. Ltd.,Ibadan
49. Arc Broadcasting Services Ltd. Ngwo/Enugu
50. Eil Ephesians Investments Ltd., Lokoja
51. Multimesh Communications Ltd., Calabar/Lafia/Yola/Ibadan/Ondo/Jos/Makurdi
52. Afrimedia Global Partners Ltd., Kaduna
53. Doja Radio, Jalingo
54. Cosmo-Built Nig. Ltd., Owerri
Former President Goodluck Jonathan awarded 72 licenses for radio and television broadcasting to some of his political associates and friends few weeks before the end of his administration.
Findings by Daily Trust on the allocations list showed that key members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) such as Chief Bode George; Ibadan-born industrialist and chairman of the finance committee of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Otunba Funso Lawal; an oil mogul and a friend to the former president, Chief Emeka Offor; among others were some of those who got the licenses.
Others include former National Chairman of the PDP Chief Barnabas Gemade; national coordinator of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) Patrick Ubah, as well as some former ministers Olajumoke Akinjide and Labaran Maku.
Daily Trust had reported then that some of the politicians had used companies not registered to run as broadcasting companies to acquire the licenses.
This was against the procedure for obtaining a broadcast license as stipulated by the National Broadcasting Commission Act No. 38 of 1992 (as amended).
Speaking on why the NBC had to wield the big stick, Kawu said “At our stakeholders’ conference with broadcast organizations, I had informed stations of a persistent pattern of refusal to pay license fees. Stations around Nigeria owe the NBC over N5billion.
“License fees are in arrears; there is no plan by many of these stations to pay; while some even had the temerity to write NBC, the regulatory institution, saying the amount they were obliged to pay is too much; and consequently telling us how much they were willing to pay, and even adding the time they were going to pay such sums. In truth, a pattern of gross indiscipline and misbehavior has been central to the relationship which many of the licensees had established in the past with the NBC.”
He also disclosed that stations would henceforth be required to turn in their Annual Reports for NBC to carry out the obligatory assessment of what constitutes a percentage of the annual turnover that they are also obliged to pay the commission.
The NBC DG also said many stations had failed to give six months prior information to the commission before the expiration of their licenses, adding that same stations had also failed to signify their intention to continue as a licensee or not.
“Our licensees carry on as if they have their licenses for keeps and the NBC cannot withdraw licenses. It is important to remind us all that ALL licenses are PROVISIONAL, no matter how long you have held them,” he said.
The NBC also warned stations against illegal and rampant use of transmission power by stations.
Mallam Kawu said radio stations procure transmitters without respecting the stipulated and recommended transmitter power in city-based FM stations.
The consequence of this, he said, is that we have frequency clashes occurring all over Nigeria.
According to him, the NBC has compiled a total of 69 stations around Nigeria, that have installed transmitters beyond the transmitter power stipulated in their licenses, “and that is not even exhaustive.”
The NBC boss also warned stations that have yet to install aviation warning lights on their masts to do so before March 31.
But the chairman of Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) Mr. John Momoh, pleaded for more time for the members to renew their licenses because broadcast stations “are going through hard time.”
Momoh said radio and TV stations were increasingly finding it very difficult to pay salaries of staff and maintaining their stations because of rising operating costs.
He called on NBC to stop over issuing broadcast licenses because the market was almost over saturated.
