Good Afternoon ladies and gentlemen and I welcome you to this auspicious gathering, put together to usher a never before attained Golden Age of Broadcasting and Advertising in Nigeria. I want to thank the Chairman and all the members of the Board, the members of the various committees set up, all the speakers who delivered papers today, FMEIL, our Technology providers, and very especially the Registrar of APCON and the DG of the NBC. You are all clearly working very hard on the task that was given to you and in a very professional way, thank you. Nigeria, the entire Creative industry and Government of Nigeria will never be the same again because of your efforts – You are ushering in a time of great prosperity for the entire sector.
The Metrics and data you will be putting together, the Standards of Practice on receipts and payments, the Media monitoring service powered by technology for real time performance evaluation will create transparency and an enabling environment for all to thrive and be prosperous. What most if not all have always asked for is a level playing field in our great country of over 200 million people, over 500 radio and television channels, with at least 24 million TV households with the largest GDP in Africa.
I hear you are also working on a sustainable content development plan to ensure a win-win for Content Creators, Production companies and TV and Radio Broadcasters, this is music to my ears and is exactly what Mr. President promised when we came into government. Reforms that will touch and improve the lives of the common Nigerian man. On the back of what you are doing is jobs, jobs, jobs. I remember assuring the FEC that there were over 1 million jobs locked into the potential of the Creative industry, and I am glad that you are now unlocking those jobs and just compensation all.
Our support will not end here, we are ready and willing to do much more. What regulations do you require, which funding doors do you need opened, is it conducive business environment for all the international advertisers and agencies who will and are already rushing to do more business in Nigeria and to increase their budgets to have a slice of the biggest market in Africa, on the back of the introduction of world class Audience Measurement? Our government is not looking back. We have now succeeded in launching what no government has ever been able to achieve before now to enable the sector to not only perform better but to punch above its peers on the entire continent. The Chairman has promised that we are targeting at least 2 billion dollars Advertising spend in Nigeria within just 3 years, from the current 400m!
I wish you all a successful planning and deliberations.
