The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has called for effective collaboration with the media in the country towards tackling the menace of copyright infringements.

The Director-General of the commission, Dr. John Asein, who made the call at a media parley in Ibadan, said while the commission has the power to arrest and prosecute people involved in copyright infringements, it still needs the support of journalists to achieve its aims, maintaining that copyright infringements have negative impact on authors and the society as a whole.

He said: “We need your support to stamp out copyright infringements. This means we all have responsibility.

“We have the power to search, arrest and prosecute. But, we rely on police, NSCDC and other security agencies so as to get it done. We have a good working relationship with the security agencies. The problem of enforcement is real.”

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), Mr. Emmanuel Abimbola, in his contributions, urged governors of Southwest states to reduce fees charged on book review for publishers, stating that this will reduce cost of books in the markets which has become a burden to most parents in the country.

He insisted that fees charged on book review by government agencies particularly in the region is becoming exorbitant.

According to him, an official of one of the states once said that the exorbitant fee charged was a means of generating revenue which should not be so because education must be seen as a social service.

He said: “We don’t really have much problem with the government of other region because some of them only charge flat rate for the book review which we publishers are ready to cope with.

“However, we are calling on the government of states in the Southwest to stop the exorbitant fee, it is becoming too much, a situation whereby we are asked to pay N10,000 or N12,000 per book title, by the time you calculated it, it will be going to N2 to N3 million.

By Abdullahi Taminu Bida

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN Nigeria), the leading telecommunication service provider in the country, on Thursday, 29 February, 2024, submitted its full-year audited report for the year ended 31 December, 2023 to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX). The report showed very impressive highlights like growths in total subscriber base, active data users, active mobile money (MoMo PSB) wallets, service revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). Despite all these positive highlights in the Statement of Accounts, the media and most analysts, as the MTN Nigeria would wish, ran with the forex loss of N740.4 billion as well as the loss before tax of N177.8 billion.

Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria

According to MTN Nigeria, the losses are as result of “rising inflation, currency devaluation and foreign exchange shortages, complicated by geopolitical disruptions and cash shortages in Q1 arising from a redesign of the naira. Karl Toriola, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, noted that “MTN Nigeria’s operations are exposed to foreign currency volatility on its operating and capital expenditure. The most significant of these exposures relates to the tower lease costs, which comprised the bulk of the 45-50 percent foreign currency exposure in our operating expenses in 2023.” Specifically, the company attributed the poor financial performance for the year under review mainly to the foreign exchange loss of N740.4 billion as a result of a 96.7 percent movement in the exchange rate from N461/$1 in December 2022 to N906/$1 in December 2023.

From media reports many of the analysts seem to look at the MTN Nigeria’s 2023 Financial reports from the prism of the company – harsh operational environment, unfavourable government policies and the general macro-economic conditions. They seem to be so convinced by the jaundiced narrative the telecom company has deliberately crafted to hoodwink stakeholders to its side that they barely look at the submitted report critically.

To start with, MTN Nigeria listed on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange in 2019 as part of its bargain with the government to have its $5.2 billion fine, for failure to disconnect its subscribers who were yet to link their National Identification Numbers to their telephone lines, slashed. Prior to the listing, MTN Nigeria was a private company and had no disclosure requirements unlike now, as a publicly quoted company, it is required to meet the disclosure requirements including the submission of quarterly results.

Let us highlight some of the items as disclosed in the report. The Loss after tax was N137.0 billion due to net forex loss; Profit after tax (PAT), adjusted for the net forex loss, decreased by 14.3 percent to N344.5 billion; Earnings per share (EPS) declined to negative N6.38 kobo (N16.56 kobo adjusted for the net forex loss, down 14.1 percent); the Net loss for the year resulted in a depletion of its retained earnings and shareholders fund to negative N208.0 billion and N40.8 billion, respectively; the Capital expenditure (capex) increased by 13.2 percent to N571.0 billion; and the company’s liabilities and assets were N3.22 trillion and N3.18 trillion respectively.

The report, as indicated, showed that the company’s liabilities are bigger than its assets, an admission that MTN Nigeria is technically insolvent. The reality is that this insolvency would remain for a long time without shareholder funding and may trigger default. This also throws up the going concern questions. How can MTN Nigeria’s auditors sign off the on the going-concern assessment of the company with such reality – a case of financial illiteracy or poor oversight?

Also, the issue of lease agreements leaves plenty room for suspicion. Is attributing an item that, according to the company, constitutes 45-50 percent of its foreign currency exposure without naming the service provider a deliberate ploy to conceal pertinent facts? It is a known fact that MTN has large ownership stakes in the companies that provide these lease services and the ‘losses’ the company posts as a result of the forex fluctuations, it ‘gains’ in form of returns on investment.

Similarly, the report indicated that MTN Nigeria changed its “measurement” of FX loses from “realized FX differences on dollar indexed leased” to the N/US$ spot exchange rate at the end of each reporting period. This, it claims, is in line with the IAS 21 and FIRS 16 and led to adjustments of 2021 and 2022 results. Why would MTN Nigeria limit the restatement of its lease liabilities to 2021 and 2022 only and not 2020 and 2019 financials when it got listed on the NGX? It is also curious that forex for the H1 2023 was not restated – when objectively there was nothing that could have triggered the IFRS 16 treatment to be altered in H2. In fact, the report showed that MTN Nigeria did a restatement on the H1 FX related transaction that was undertaken in October 2023.

These may be pointers to a possibility of sharp practices and willful concealment on the part of MTN Nigeria in contravention of the extant disclosure rules of the Exchange. This possible concealment, probably aimed at avoiding tax liabilities and/or shareholder obligations, should be of interest to industry stakeholders, in particular and Nigerians in general. MTN Nigeria’s over two-decade operations in Nigeria leaves much to be desired as there have been cases that border around corporate governance such as tax defaults, illegal repatriations of profits and other corporate vices.

Abdullahi Taminu Bida, writes for Abuja

Multichoice Nigeria, leading pay TV operator, has again increased the subscriptions for its DStv and GOtv packages by at least 25 per cent .

ohn Ugbe,

Multichoice announced the increase in tarrifs in a message sent to subscribers on Wednesday and said that the new regime will be effective May 1.

The company stated this in the statement signed by John Ugbe, chief executive officer was titled, ‘Price Adjustment on DStv and GOtv Packages.’

The pay-TV firm cited the rise in the cost of business operations as the rationale behind the price increase.

The company said, “We understand the impact this change may have on you – our valued customer, but the rise in the cost of business operations, has led us to make this difficult decision.

“It remains our mission to provide the best entertainment and viewing experience to you and are committed to continue to deliver high-quality content and unparalleled service. So, from Wednesday, 1 May 2024, the price adjustment will take effect.”

With the review, customers on the DStv Premium package will see their monthly subscription fee increase to N37,000 starting from May 1, marking a 25.4% rise from the current N29,500.

Also, price of the Compact+ bouquet has been raised to N25,000 from N19,800 per month, reflecting a 26.2% increment.

DStv has also announced that subscribers on its Compact bouquet will now pay N15,700, up from the current N12,500, representing a 25.6% increase.

Meanwhile, those on the Confam package will face a 25.6% hike as their monthly subscription rises to N9,300 from N7,400.

Under the new pricing structure, viewers on the DStv Yanga bouquet will be charged N5,100 for their monthly subscription, marking a 21.43% increase over the current N4,200 fee.

Multichoice has announced price increases across its GOtv packages. Customers on the Supa Plus package will now pay N15,700, marking a 25.6% rise from the current price of N12,500. Similarly, the Supa bouquet will see its price increase to N9,600 from the current N7,600.

For the GOtv Max subscription, the new price is N7,200, up from N5,700, while the Jolli package will now cost N4,850, compared to the current price of N3,950. Multichoice has also adjusted the price of its lowest GOtv package, Jinja, which will now be N3,300 monthly instead of the current N2,700.