National Broadcasting Commission suspends Stations Shutdown

The National Broadcasting Commission on Friday, August 19TH, 2022, issued a shutdown notice to licensee that are indebted to the Commission.

Following the ultimatum, the Commission received positive responses from the debtor Licensees, including big players in the broadcast industry.

Sequel to a follow-up meeting held with Executives of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and other critical Stakeholders in the industry, the Commission has decided to temporarily suspend the shutdown of the indebted Broadcast stations all over the Country.

We express our profound appreciation to the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, the affected licensees and Broadcast Stakeholders for their responses and interventions. We, specifically, thank DAAR Communications Ltd and Silverbird TV/Rhythm FM for their responses.

The Commission is not unaware of the difficulties this shutdown must have caused the operators and other stakeholders, but must state that the Commission will always operate within the National Broadcasting Commission Act, Cap. N11, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

The National Broadcasting Commission had last week Friday announced the shutdown of 53 Radio and Television Stations across the Country due to their failure to pay for their Broadcast Licenses as stipulated under the Laws of Nigeria and the act establishing the National Broadcasting Commission.

The announcement which was made by its Director General Balarabe Sheu Ilela.

While announcing the Shutdown, he said the Commission is constrained to take the action for a variety of reasons.

The announcement had been met with condemnation by several interest groups and professional associations including the Nigerian Guild of Editors and SERAP.