TheCable

Yakubu Mohammed, director-general of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), says free coverage of events is preventing the station from being self-funding.

Mohammed spoke on Tuesday when he appeared before the house of representatives committee on information, national orientation, ethics and values to defend his station’s 2022 budget.

The director-general said NTA is under pressure to offer free services to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

“We are always talking about our problems and when we do, the committee gives us a shoulder on which to lean on but the problem persists,” he said.

“Among these problems are inadequate funding, completion of NTA permanent site which is ongoing, dilapidated buildings and equipment all over the country and then the digitisation funding which the honourable minister (Lai Mohammed) has spoken eloquently about yesterday.

“We are also facing the problem of free coverage. Most people think because it is a federal government establishment they can just get this for free, forgetting that we do have our charges — we do have our cost.

“Some of the services we provide attract cost and then we have competition and all other issues — the competition, for example, not every part of NTA is digitised.

“For example, you go out with a digital camera, then you bring in pictures. In the process of transmission, you transmit using analogue equipment. At the end of the day, the pictures are not as bright as they should be.

“NTA is capable of making enough money to sustain itself if it is left alone — if it is not seen as a government that is there for everybody to come and collect services free of charge.

“Everybody thinks that NTA is a government establishment — it belongs to all of us. So, we go to NTA, get the services offered by NTA for free. I did mention that our services attract a cost. For example, for every large coverage I do, I pay Intelsat in hard currency.

“Right now on my desk, I have a letter from a government agency that I’m sure has a budget for media publicity — asking me to give four hours of live coverage free of charge, plus 9 o’clock news free announcement on the network news.

“What ministries, agencies and parastatals of government do is that they invite the minister (Lai Mohammed) to be guest of honour at an event because they know once the minister is there, NTA must cover. So, these are the kind of things that prevent us from making money.”

Mohammed added that NTA had displaced some shows and commercials to accommodate COVID-19 programmes, but is yet to receive COVID intervention fund from the federal government.