December 23, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has concluded arrangements for the establishment of an institute for broadcast policy and regulations in the country.
Director General of the Commission, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah who announced this during a media parley in Abuja said the institute will take off with the first set of students during the first quarter of 2022.
According to the NBC DG, “the intention is to make sure that we train all broadcasters because right now, there is no institution that gives such training.
“We have been having problems with some of our broadcasters, most of them are not professional, they are just diving into the profession without getting proper training.”
The NBC DG noted that the institution, which is going to be mandatory to all broadcasters, would be manned by professionals who would teach and train broadcasters on the ethics and codes of the profession.
The DG further explained that, NBC has initiated partnership with the National University Commission (NUC) and National Board for Technical Education for broadcast curricular accreditation at Nigerian tertiary institutions.
He called on broadcasters to ensure professionalism by reporting facts accurately and fairly.
“We know the harm fake news, hate speech and unprofessional broadcast has cost societies. We must be extremely cautious of the contents we put out there”, IIelah warned.
The NBC Boss used the forum to call on the over one hundred Radio and Television stations in Nigeria, including the newly licenced stations to offset their broadcast licence fee which amounts to about four billion naira.
Ilelah warned that failure to pay the debts before 17th January, 2022 will lead to the withdrawal of their licences and “reallocating them to new prospective licences.”
Also, the NBC DG has expressed the commitment of the Commission to ensure the smooth actualisation in the transition of the Digital Switch Over project in Nigeria for better Television contents and employment generation to Nigerians.
He explained that NBC would continue to collaborate with relevant Broadcasting bodies for a better and professional industry.
