Stakeholders meet NBC over community radio stations

To discuss operational frameworks for the 12 newly approved community radio stations in Nigeria, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the leadership of the Nigerian Community Radio Coalition (NCRC) will be meeting tomorrow in Abuja

The Director-General of NBC, Mr. Emeka Mba, who broke the news of the approval, last Wednesday in Abuja, at the press conference on Nigeria’s transition from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting, said the new stations would emerge from the pool of applications already submitted by the coalition.

“The 12 community radio stations would serve as pilot scheme and the way they are deployed “will determine the rolling out of more licences in this category in the nearest future,” Mba said.

Members of the coalition across Nigeria are already celebrating the approval on their online forum. Executive Director, Institute for Media and Society (IMESO), Mr. Akin Akingbulu announced the approval on the coalition’s website.

“Congratulations to everyone of us on the announcement that President Jonathan has approved a set of community radio licenses. We are continuing our interaction with the regulatory body, National Broadcasting Commission, so that the affected communities will collect their approval documents and other implementation activities can start immediately.

I will circulate details of the approved licencee communities once I receive them and continue to update you on developments,” Akingbulu told coalition members.

NCRC is the advocacy group that championed the campaign for the establishment of the third tier of radio broadcasting in the last 12 years before the approval was announced last Wednesday. The coalition has also pledged support to ensure that the 12 newly approved community radio stations are run professionally.

Praising the approval by the Federal Government, the coalition in a statement by Akingbulu, said, “the NCRC is available and ready to work with the regulatory body, the NBC, to ensure the emergence of community radio stations which operate professionally, demonstrate global standards and help to achieve the development objectives of our great country.”

The statement reads further: “We congratulate the Federal Government, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), advocates in grassroots communities, Civil Society, Academia, Media and other development stakeholders, for this achievement.

“We recall that the advocacy for the licensing of Community Radio in the past twelve years, has recorded such milestones as the development of a National Policy Document on community radio development in 2006 and the 2010 pronouncement by President Jonathan that community radio should become part of the Nigerian media landscape. The approval of licenses, now done, is a climax of milestones.