Dr. Danladi Bako, former Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, has called on the management of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to leverage ICT to improve its services and shore up revenue generation.
He gave the advice in an interview with NAN on Sunday in Abuja.
According to Bako, the legislature and executive arms of government can only offer the agency about 60 per cent of funds required to perform optimally.
“In the past, the NAN bulletin was always on peoples tables. NAN bulletin was always filled with stories. We usually have them in NTA, Sokoto, Lagos and other locations, because we subscribed and we paid.
“There were others NAN offices in Africa countries like Johannesburg, South Africa, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, etc. So, you must device a way to begin to make money from your bulletin and other services.
“People use to subscribe to NAN bulletin because they can find good stories; and not all good stories require money, but those good stories require creativity, skills and ability to be updated on ICT
“You saw what happened in the past five to 10 years; there are a lots of young people now who are so creative; these days, small children can operate your phone better than you,” Bako said.
He encouraged the agency to get young staffers that are hungry to explore technology in the activities and service delivery.
“It is regrettable that some staffers in the news agency are not hungry to explore, some of them are laid back.
“If you ask me, I will first of all drill some of you for two weeks; the ones that survived will survive, the one that don’t survive will find alternative jobs elsewhere.
“This is because there is competition in the industry and only those that are creative, innovative and technologically-driven can stand.
“When I was going to register Multi Choice, I called DG of NTA, VON, and others . I told them that I am going to register a competition that will make them work harder.
“This is because when Multi Choice comes with digital signals, it will make their own signals look like something for kindergarten. That is still what is happening now.
“So, NTA must look for area of strength, access to capacity and ability to be able to sell until they meet up with global standard,” Bako said.
He, however, ommended NTA for trying to improve its operation on a digital level and work to revamp their cameras.
“Now, your selling point must be three to four brilliant young boys of 28, who are ICT experts and hungry for news. Good and modern work tools is also very important. It makes the work easy,” he said. (NAN)