Local Content: Lai Mohammed slams new fines on companies advertising on CNN, other foreign outlets
Information Minister Lai Mohammed says that Nigerian brands that run their adverts with CNN and other foreign outlets will be fined N100,000 for every time the advert is broadcasted.
“If you do an advert in South Africa, you put it on CNN and we look at that advert and we see that the advert was not made in Nigeria but actually made in South Africa, or you see that five times a day, it is on CNN, you pay half a million to us. The half a million will go to the Content Development Fund,” Mr Mohammed said.
He added that adverts made to promote local brands must be directed and authored by Nigerians in the country.
According to Vanguard newspaper, the Information Minister also made it compulsory for Nigerian brands in the habit of running adverts during foreign matches to advertise on Nigerian Premier Football League games.
He explained that for any Nigerian company to invest in a foreign league, the firm must spend at least 30 per cent of that money on Nigerian football.
“Let’s assume you have brought in La Liga, and during the matches, Guinness is advertised, we will compel you, we will compel Guinness to also advertise when we are playing a local league. That is the only way we can grow this industry but as can be expected, we have had very few supporters,” Mr Mohammed said.
“In other words, if Maltina or Guinness decides to bring in EPL, which is English football, we have no problem with that. But they must also invest in covering our local league to the tune of 30 per cent of what he has paid,” he added.
Mr Mohammed further disclosed that NBC had been mandated to regulate exclusive licensees to allow broadcasters to share exclusive rights with other local channels,
The policy takes monopoly off the likes of Multichoice to allow other broadcasters access to exclusive content.
The minister further explained that the decision was reached to create competition in the broadcast sector, adding that Nigeria will not be able to grow local content until there is competition in the broadcast sector.
It is immediately unclear if Mr Mohammed’s take is purely altruistic or in pursuance of the sanctions he promised against CNN and other foreign media in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests coverage.
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