The ongoing tension at the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over alleged N2.5 billion paid to Pinnacle Communications Limited, a signal distributor licensee, for undisclosed services reached fever pitch last week as industry sources raised alarm that the commission’s perceived jettisoning of fairness and global regulatory best practices in its dealings with stakeholders could further delay and derail the much-awaited full digitisation of the country’s broadcast industry.
After Nigeria failed to meet the June 17, 2015 deadline for migration from analogue to digital broadcasting which it agreed with other International Telecommunication Union (ITU) members in Geneva in 2006, a new deadline of June 2017 was agreed. As it has turned out, Nigeria again missed the second deadline.
A successful switchover to digital broadcasting is expected to free up requisite frequency spectrum under the control of the NBC, which the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) can then clean up and reallocate to deserving operators for the deployment of efficient and affordable broadband services. It is also capable of not only transforming television and broadcasting in general but also helping to bridge the digital divide, create jobs and grow the national economy.
Though this failure is being rationalised by the commission as normal teething problems, allegations emerged that N2.5 billion of taxpayers’ money was paid to a private company, contrary to laid-down terms and conditions for the bidding of signal distributorship in the Digital Switch Over (DSO). This, some stakeholders say, amounts to giving priority attention to one signal distributor at the detriment of others, a situation that does not augur well for fairness, equity and business competition, and capable of slowing the pace of the DSO project.
It will be recalled that government had licensed three key national signal distributors to drive digital signal distribution process across the country and to provide Nigerians with easy access to the digital signals. These signal distributors are Pinnacle, MTS and Integrated Television Services (ITS). However, the stakeholders are worried that some unseen but powerful hands in government are trying to favour one over the others.
Recall also that in December 2016 Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, launched the Digital Switch Over in Abuja during which he said Nigeria “is irreversibly committed” to meeting the June 2017 deadline for transition from analogue to digital television broadcasting. Stakeholders now say what the Vice President, who seemed impressed with the facilities installed by Pinnacle Communications Limited, did not know was that Pinnacle may have put up such a show on the strength of the money it “secretly” collected from government through the NBC.
Many industry stakeholders have raised questions regarding why such huge sum of money would be given to a private company that bid for the project – and secretly too. They argue that part of the prerequisite for getting the licence in the first place was the ability of a private firm to mobilise financial resources to carry out the project and that at the time of the bid Pinnacle had said it had the financial wherewithal, which was why it won against other bidders. There have been questions also about how a regulator, which is expected to be fair to all the players in the industry, especially licensed operators who bid and agreed to specific terms, would turn around to prop up one at the expense of the other players, as well as why the Ministry of Information and Culture, the supervising ministry, seems silent over the whole affair.
Some of the stakeholders said for the NBC to secretly give out money to one operator smacked of impunity and corruption, particularly in an administration that rode to power on the wings of anti-corruption crusade. Some even called on anti-graft agencies to wade into the matter.
They also allege that while the NBC is yet to set appropriate rules and conditions with regard to carriage of licensed TV channels on the infrastructure of the signal carriers, such as carriage rates and geographical coverage areas, as well as the thorny issue of conflicts over areas of operation since all three broadcast signal companies have the same licence to operate across the country, it went ahead to curiously pay a licensed private operator.
The decision to pay Pinnacle Communications, some sources say, may have been based on the mistaken belief that since the other operator was given a grant of N1.7 billion by the previous management, Pinnacle should also be paid even though it is a privately-owned company which during its licensing bid confirmed its financial capability to roll out operations across the country. The difference, however, according to reports, is that the first broadcast signal distributor, though it is supposed to operate as an independent company, was specifically established to serve as government-owned signal distributor given the strategic importance of broadcasting to national security interests, and the funds allocated to it by the former NBC director-general was government’s share of the financial burden needed as take-off grants for signal distributor and formed part of the larger DSO budget which was vetted and approved by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In the current case, however, industry watchers say as a licensee, the operator concerned is supposed to pay NBC licence fees and other regulatory charges and not the other way wound. But now that an operator has allegedly been paid by NBC, they wonder what would be fate of the other signal distributor MTS, which ostensibly is owned by the entire licensed private and state-owned broadcasters under the auspices of the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON).
But while the matter raged, a news report on Wednesday quoted Hajia Maimuna Jimada, NBC’s Public Relations Officer, as saying the payment was made for delivered services and not for any frivolous activities.
“The payment was made to Pinnacle for services rendered. The truth of the matter is whoever is accusing NBC should come up with documents to back the claim,” Jimada was quoted to have said in an interview.
“The NBC is a transparent agency and has paid our stakeholders for different services rendered. How much payment will NBC be making public in the media? That is not our practice. It is not for NBC to be defending itself when we know that all payments made are within our purview and if someone is aggrieved, they should provide documents to back up the claim. Normal due process was followed; there is nothing secretive about it at all. Agencies are empowered to make payments and whatever payment made was within our power for a just cause,” she said.
But these explanations have not pacified aggrieved stakeholders, who question whether NBC has the powers to seek services worth up to N2.5 billion without following a bidding process through the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
A news report on Friday also quoted a top official of the Ministry of Information and Culture to have said that the rollout of Digital Switch Over (DSO) that took place in Abuja on December 22, 2016 was on the insistence of the Federal Government and that the N2.5 billion paid to Pinnacle Communications was to foot the bills of the transmission infrastructure development since the company was being compelled to go outside its plan, pace and financial expenses roadmap.
“The issue is that every business operator has its plan, pace and financial expenses roadmap which the owner wishes to carry out. But when the company is being compelled in a hurry to do what it is not yet ready or what it has not planned for with speed, it means that there must be an empowerment by way of funding for the company to do what the compeller needs. This was how the N2.5bn funding came about,” the report quoted the anonymous source as saying.
It was learnt earlier in the week that Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, director-general of NBC, was scheduled to hold a press briefing last Thursday but later shelved the idea to give room for another wider press conference being put together by Lai Mohamed, Minister of Information, on Tuesday. The minister is expected to address the key questions raised by stakeholders.
CHUKS OLUIGBO
