The move is part of the country’s efforts to ease the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the broadcast industry.
The federal government has announced a two-month licence fee waiver for terrestrial broadcast stations in Nigeria.
The move, which was announced by Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed, comes as part of efforts to ease the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the broadcast industry in the country.
Terrestrial stations affected include Galaxy, AIT, TVC, MITV, Silverbird TV, NTA, which are all free-to-air channels for consumers.
Licence fees cost as much as $7,661 a year to broadcast.
It comes after the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) had pressed the federal government to approve tax rebates for the broadcast stations as well as a one- year moratorium in the payment of annual operating licence fee payable to the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
Commenting on the fee waiver, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was quoted as saying: “I make bold to say that while BON members have been hit hard by the current pandemic, they are not alone. In fact, the entire creative industry, which also covers the broadcast industry, has been affected by the pandemic that has inflicted extensive damage on the economy of nations across the world.”
He also stressed the need for a government-supported approach in dealing with the immediate, short and long term initiatives for the industry to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on the Industry.
