The President of African Media Network, AMNETT, Aniekan Umanah, has lamented the falling economic fortunes of media organisations in Nigeria and called on the Bank of Industry to float a Media Development Fund.
Speaking during a media round table discussion organised by AMNETT, Umanah noted that the grave fiscal situation in the country has inflicted untold hardship on the entire media industry.
According to him, the prevailing high exchange rate of the Naira has made it difficult for media houses to procure their basic consumables, since 80% of media consumables are foreign oriented, which has also affected the capabilities of the organizations to pay staff salaries.
The huge cost involved in running generators to provide alternative power supply, he said, has made the business environment very challenging, thereby compounding the woes of media establishments in Nigeria.
Buttressing the need for a concerted effort to salvage the media industry from total collapse through the Media Development Fund, the AMNETT President said the harsh business climate has resulted in low print run in newspaper houses, retrenchments and high rate of closures.
He wondered why a country like Nigeria with about 180 million people cannot boast of one functional newsprint mill. According to him, “Germany, a far smaller country, has 23 functional paper mills.”
Umanah observed that salvaging the media industry in Nigeria “is a necessary step to keep the jobs of thousands of employees as well as save the their dependents from hardship.”
He recalled that members of the fourth estate of the realm were critical in the struggle to return Nigeria to the path of democracy and have remained committed to its sustenance, adding that they should therefore, not be allowed to suffer hardship.