COVID-19 stimulus for media: FG awaiting NPAN’s submission, says Lai Mohammed

Per Second NewsSeptember 14, 2020329

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the Federal Government is awaiting the submission of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) on possible areas of intervention to cushion the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the government was ready to provide some support to the print newspaper sub-sector of the media industry.

Mohammed told State House correspondents on Monday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa in Abuja that the government had done a few things to intervene in the broadcast sub-sector of the industry and was waiting for NPAN’s submission.

“Government has done a lot the media, especially the broadcast industry, during this pandemic. The first thing we did was to give a waiver of two months payment of license fees to all broadcast houses, between May and July, after which we gave an amnesty as 60 percent discount or debt forgiveness, for all broadcast houses, except the Pay TVs, and also slashed by 30 percent the licensing fees because of the COVID-19.

“I also met with the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, we met virtually and I’m still waiting for them to come and make their submissions.

“Definitely, the government is willing to look into the hardships and the challenges the media is facing and within our means to see how best we can intervene. I’m still waiting for the NPAN to come back to us to see what we can do to ameliorate the situation”, he said.

He assured that the government was committed to developing the creative industry, especially because of its huge job opportunities.

“President Buhari is particularly interested in the industry.

“This government is putting a lot of emphasis and promoting the creative industry, which is tourism, which is hospitality industry, which is the music industry, which is the film industry, which is publishing, which is broadcasting.

“We’ll continue to support this industry and have the Mr President’s support. He was quite excited about the portrait because he’s able to see what kind of jobs can be created through this cultural festivals”, Muhammed said.

On his meeting with President Buhari, Mohammed said: “I came today to make a presentation of a portrait of the Argungu Festival to Mr President.

“You will recall that sometimes in February this year, after almost ten years of hiatus, the Argungu Festival made a comeback. The Argungu Festival is one of the two UNESCO recognised festivals and it is on the UNESCO list of heritages.”