FG support for newspaper houses delayed by NPAN ― Lai Mohammed

The Federal Government, on Monday, explained that its planned COVID-19 assistance to newspaper houses is being delayed by the lack of submission from the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) on the manner of assistance required.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this to State House correspondents after making a presentation to President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, stressed the readiness of the government to provide support to the newspaper industry.

He affirmed that the government has already provided succour to the broadcast industry and will extend similar gesture to the newspaper when NPAN makes a submission on how government can help.

Asked about assistance to the promised assistance to the media industry particularly the newspapers, he said: “Government has done a lot for 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 per cent discount or debt forgiveness, for all broadcast houses, except the Pay TVs, and also slashed by 30 per cent 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.”

The Minister, who presented a portrait on the last Argungun Fishing Festival to the President, noted that the Federal Government is serious about developing the entire creative industry, especially because of the huge job opportunity potential it has, adding that President Buhari is particularly interested in the industry.

He added: “This government is putting a lot of emphases and promoting the creative industry, which is tourism, which is the 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.”

On the portrait presentation, Mohammed stated: “I came today to make a presentation of a portrait of the Argungu Festival to Mr President.

“You’ll recall that sometimes in February this year, after almost 10 years of hiatus, the Argungu Festival made a comeback. The Argungu Festival is one of the two UNESCO recognised festivals and it’s on the UNESCO list of heritage.”

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