NBC, which regulates the broadcast industry, has been criticised in the past for arbitrarily imposing fines on TV and radio stations over controversial programmes

The Nigerian government has announced the revocation of the broadcast licenses of 52 television and radio stations. It also ordered the affected station to “shut down their operations” within the next 24 hours.

The Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) in a statement said the licenses were revoked because the stations failed to renew their licenses as required by law.

The commission said it had, in May 2022, given the affected stations “two weeks to renew their licenses and pay their debts or consider their licenses revoked…”

“Three months after the publication, some licensees are yet to pay their outstanding debts,” NBC wrote in the Friday statement.

It listed some of the affected stations. They include Silverbird TV, Rhythm FM, AIT/RayPower FM, and MITV.

While many of the affected stations are privately owned, there were also some public stations such as Kogi State Broadcasting Corporation and Kwara State Broadcasting Corporation.

NBC, which regulates the broadcast industry, has been criticised in the past for arbitrarily imposing fines on TV and radio stations over controversial programmes.

See the NBC statement and the full list of the affected stations below.