Lai Mohammed Seeks $500m Loan To Turn NTA Into CNN

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has revealed his ministry’s plan to upgrade the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) to the standard of the Cable News Network (CNN), a media company worth close to $12 billion.

Mohammed said the information ministry can make NTA compete with CNN if granted the $500 million loan, which is captured in the $29.96b critical infrastructure loan President Muhammadu Buhari intends to take from external sources.

Meanwhile, a 2014 report by Los Angeles Times quoted a former executive at Times Warner Inc. as putting CNN’s worth at between $8 billion to $12 billion.

Mohammed was quoted by Guardian as revealing the somewhat daunting prospect while defending the $500 million loan request before the senate committee on local and foreign loans.

“If this project is approved, there will be more visibility for our people in the music, fashion and film industries,” he said.

“In 2014, we made $23 million from music alone and about $53 million in 2019 and we are looking forward to making $83 million in 2025.

“You can imagine the kind of growth we will have if only we digitise all the NTA stations in the country.

“Apart from agriculture, which is the largest employer of labour in Nigeria, especially the youths, the next largest employer of labour is the creative industry.

“The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2006 gave June 17, 2015 as deadline for all members of the organisation to migrate from analogue to digital.

“Regrettably, we were unable to meet the deadline along-side most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the deadline was moved to 2017, which was not reliable and today the target is June 17, 2020,” said the minister.