The Nigerian Government has granted approval for the National Broadcasting Commission to issue 67 new broadcast licenses.
This was disclosed at a media briefing by the Director General, National Broadcasting Commission, Mr. Balarabe Ilelah in Abuja on Thursday.
The NBC DG described the licenses issuance as a milestone in furthering pluralism and freedom of expression.
The DG said the intrinsic democratic values in President Muhammadu Buhari made him standout because he pluralized the media space.
“He has granted a total of 473 broadcast licenses under his administration so far.”
Ilelah said the President has also approved for the independence of the NBC from political interference in the exercise of its regulatory functions particularly with respect to issuance and withdrawal of license.
“The president has also approved for the commission to acquire state of the art equipment and recruit more staff for broadcast monitoring.’’
The DG revealed plans by the commission to establish a broadcast training institute for training players adding that the structure to house the institute was already in place.
On the Digital Switch Over (DSO) project, he said the Commission was already working on simultaneous delivery of the DSO.
