Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed has stated that Nigerian brands will be mandated to pay N100,000 every time their foreign-produced adverts are aired on TV stations showing in Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the information minister while speaking on NTA’s ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ programme on Monday.
Mohammed explained that the brands must pay the fine, whether their adverts are shown on an international platform like CNN or local stations.
Mohammed added that brands like Guinness, which run adverts during English Premier League (EPL) games, must compulsorily advertise during Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) matches.
The minister said these rules are embedded in the amended broadcasting code.
“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,” he said.
“That is the only way we can grow this industry but as can be expected, we have had very few supporters.
“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.
“What is common today is to see products made in Nigeria but the advert for those products are actually probably done in South Africa or in the US.
“So, we amended the code to say that if a product you want to advertise in Nigeria territory is made in Nigeria, grown in Nigeria or processed in Nigeria, then you must make sure that the advert is also produced in Nigeria.
“Gulder is made, processed in Nigeria. If you go to South Africa to produce an advert which you are going to air to Nigerians because Nigerians consume Gulder, what we have amended the code to say is that for every time that advert is aired in Nigeria either on radio or television, you pay a fine of N100,000.
“We are not stopping you from making your production in America or South Africa but if you are going to advertise in Nigerian territory, you will pay a fine of N100,000.
“In other words, if Gulder makes an advert in South Africa and it is shown on NTA, if it shows it 10 times a day, it will pay N100,000 fine 10 times.”
Speaking further, Mohammed added that Nigerian brands that invest in a foreign league must also invest at least 30 percent of the investment capital in Nigerian football.
“We went further to say that if a company should invest $1m in bringing EPL to Nigeria, that company must also be ready to spend 30 percent of that $1m in producing a local content along the same line,” the minister 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 percent of what he has paid.”
He reiterated that NBC had been asked to implement a regulation mandating exclusive licensees and broadcasters to share exclusive rights with other broadcasters.
Mohammed said this policy would ensure that Multichoice would no longer have the monopoly of broadcasting the English Premier League (EPL).
“The NBC has issued about 30 pay-TV licences but only one is managing to survive. Why? Because of these anti-competitive and manipulative tendencies of these foreign companies,” he said.