Productions: Nigeria Briefings

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NIGERIAN MULTIMEDIA INDUSTRY
March 21, 1999

A campaign strategy to popularize the Internet and its uses in Nigeria has begun in Lagos, with a five-day workshop. The forum, organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is seen by industry operators as a "new dimension in the quest for improved free flow of information".

NCC chief executive, Chief Ogbonna Iromantu, said regular courses would equip both the Internet Service Providers (ISP) and captains of industry with technical expertise on Internet development.

In April, last year, the UNDP signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Nigeria to facilitate internet awareness through a grant of about $500,000 which was also expected to supplement Nigeria's building of an Internet gateway. [Source: Vanguard, Guardian, This Day, and P.M. News]

Plans by the military government in Nigeria to take over the first private broadcast station in the country, Ray power 100 FM and African Independent Television (AIT), has been shelved, the Lagos based Vanguard newspaper said, quoting "presidency sources".

The paper said the takeover bid was designed by the regime of the late General Sani Abacha based on security reports by the former national security adviser, Alhaji Ismaila Gwarzo, which argued that the two media outlets would be a stumbling block to the self-succession plans of General Abacha. The only way to ward off this threat, according to the report, was for the government to intervene in the ownership structure of the station. Subsequently, said the paper, a bid to forcibly buy off 51% of the station was made but fell through with the death of the general last year June.

Acquisition of a 51% stake in Raypower and AIT would have given controlling shares to the government and the right to appoint a representative to direct and control the affairs of the two stations. Besides, the stations would have lost their programming and editorial independence, developments that would have harmed their audience ratings.

General Abacha's plan to take over the broadcast stations was one in many of bids to acquire private enterprises. In 1995, his government initiated moves to take over the four biggest banks in the country it had earlier privatized--namely First bank of Nigeria Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, United Bank of Africa Plc and Afribank. The report stirred national debates on the issue. Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were opposed to the idea. They saw it as a way of going back on government's earlier commitment to privatization.

Chairman of DAAR Communication, (owners of Ray power/AIT), Raymond Dokpesi, according to the paper, has been informed of the plan to shelve the acquisition. DAAR communications was granted radio license by the Abacha administration in 1993. Four years later, it acquired the right to establish a television station, for which a loan of about N360 million was obtained from a consortium of banks. The company lately acquired satellite rights to transmit beyond Nigerian shores. Last year the banks stepped in and took over management following the company's inability to meet its loan obligations. [Source: Vanguard]

Three months after a national seminar drew attention to the need for a committee of experts to develop and implement a national strategy on the Y2K Millennium bug, the government in Nigeria has set up an body to help it achieve this goal and professional groups say this is a welcome even if belated move.

The body, named the National Coordination Office of Nigerian Solution to 2000 Bug, NCO, and which will co-opt professionals in the computer and Information Technology industry, is headed by Tukur Ahmed, an expert Information Technologist. The body has an initial budget of N1 billion to "rectify all government computers and assist all private sector concerns to rectify theirs."

Tukur Ahmed is currently the Director of Technology Assessment and Acquisition at the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology. He says he intends to mobilize funds and human resources both from private and the government sector to tackle the problem and achieve compliance in all computer systems in less than twelve months.

The private sector is far ahead in its preparations for the Y2K problem, according to professionals who also say the incorporation of experts from the private sector in the committee is a wise step to forestall any crisis in government accounting in the event of a central computer shut-down. Experts say that about 65% of public sector accounting is vulnerable to the Y2K bug. [Sources: This Day, Concord, P.M.News, and Vanguard]

In about half a decade since private television broadcasting started in Nigeria in 1993, it has been a case of mixed blessings of expanded choice on the one hand and continued dependence on foreign programming on the other hand. Whereas in 1993, 14 television and 13 satellite retransmission stations were licensed to broadcast, today, according to Nigerian Broadcasting Commission [NBC] statistics, there are 63 terrestrial television stations, nine of them private, and two global satellite television stations, with one of them giving a three hour daily feed to 15 African countries. NBC is the national regulatory body.

NBC reports indicate that the two main problems in the industry in 1997 persisted in 1998. The problems were how to deepen the level of local contents in programming for Radio, TV, and cable TV, as well as piracy. The programming standard for the industry is a minimum of 60% local broadcast content and a maximum of 40% foreign content for open broadcast Radio/Television stations; and a minimum of 20 per cent local content in programming for cable/satellite transmission stations. Operators partly blame the collapse of the local music and video industry for this development, but they also say the pressure of a global culture is as much to blame.

Piracy continues to boom however. There is also concern in the industry that the conflict in the mandates of the NBC and the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has largely contributed to this. Besides, the NCC is badly lacking in necessary equipment to monitor the airwaves for pirated programs. Piracy is more rampant in sports and musical programs. [Sources: NBC Annual Reports, Vanguard, and Guardian]

The current demand in the Nigerian telephone industry is estimated at 3 million for regular lines and 200,000 for cellular phone services but supply is a scant 780,000 regular lines. Even at this low figure only 500,000 have been connected. The state of cellular phones is even worse. Only 15,000 cell phone lines are currently connected. This puts the state of tele-density in Nigeria today at 1:200 for a population of about 100 million people. With 12 percent of the world's population, sub-Saharan Africa has only 2 percent of its telephone lines. According to South African First Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, there are more telephone lines in Manhattan or Tokyo than in all sub-Saharan Africa.

The problem, according to industry experts, is due to the long history of poor management and planning in the telecommunication sector. NITEL, the Nigeria primary carrier was established in 1985. It has an asset base of over $2.3 billion (=N=200 billion). It ran a deficit budget for six years until 1992 when it signed a performance contract preparatory to privatization. M-Tel, its cellular company subsidiary was formed in 1992, as a joint venture between Nitel and Digital communication of Atlanta to serve a market monopoly of $5million in 1992. Its initial 10,000 lines were used up in one year. In February 1994 it added 20,000 lines and hoped to add 25,000 before a split with Nitel.

In September 1993 the National Communication Commission (NCC) was set up as a regulatory body in the wake of private participation in the industry to license Private telephone companies, [PTOs], facilitate private sector participation, improve tele-penetration, oversea operator practices, and protect consumers against monopolistic and market abuse.

In June 1994 it opened 7 fields to private participation in the industry: consumer premises equipment, pay phones, private network links, community phones, value-added network services airlines, banking and packet switches (Internet), repair and maintenance, and tele-cabling. The body is headed by Cletus Iromantu a tested technocrat.

A current survey of the industry reveals a great leap with 19 PTOs registered, although only five are operating for now. 8 cell phone (GSM) network operators have also been licensed but none has started operating; 5 of the 15 licenses pay phone operators are already in business; 3 paging operators have commenced operations of the 19 licensed; 7 VSAT operators of the 23 licensed and 15 internet Service operators of the 41 licensed are in business.

However, in a bid to provide telephone services to more people and at affordable prices, the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) has embarked on expansion of its facilities with more than N630 million earmarked for the provision of gateway for Internet services. The Managing Director of NITEL, Prof. Buba Bajuga, said: "NITEL has continued to discharge its responsibilities by providing efficient and reliable telecommunications services and is billed to introduce not less than two million telephone lines by the year 2010, thereby reaching a telephone density of 2.4 telephone lines per 100 people." [Sources: NCC fact sheets, P.M. News, Guardian, Vanguard]

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