Tinubu pledges support for Nigerian media in push for fair revenue from Big Tech
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assured Nigerian media organisations of his administration’s support in their campaign for fair revenue from global technology companies, while also promising to review tariffs affecting the industry.
The President made the pledge during an interfaith dinner with a delegation from the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO) at the State House in Abuja on Friday. He described the media as an “indispensable partner” in promoting economic stability, press freedom, and national cohesion.
Tinubu said the Federal Government would back the media’s evidence-based campaign against the dominance and anti-competitive practices of major technology firms, which stakeholders say have significantly affected the revenue streams of local media organisations. He also noted that the government is committed to addressing the fiscal challenges and what he described as “digital cannibalisation” threatening the sustainability of the press.
The delegation was led by the President of the NPO and Publisher of The Guardian, Maiden Alex-Ibru, and included prominent figures in the media industry such as Olusegun Osoba, Sam Amuka, Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman of Channels Television John Momoh, Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Saliu Abdulhamid Dembos, veteran journalist Ray Ekpu, President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) Eze Anaba, President of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) Danlami Nmodu, and President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Alhassan Yahya Abdullahi.
Also present were executive members of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), managing directors of media houses, senior journalists across various platforms, and representatives of civil society organisations.
Addressing the delegation, Tinubu disclosed that the government is reviewing the tariff exemption list and may include media production materials such as newsprint, printing plates, chemicals, and radio and television broadcast equipment, which currently attract tariffs ranging from five to ten percent. If approved, these items could receive the same exemption status granted to educational and research materials.
With the media industry facing rising operational costs, particularly for newsprint and broadcast equipment, the President said the government is ready to intervene through policy adjustments.
“You have the government’s full support because we know how important your work is to the sustenance of democracy,” he said.
Earlier, the Deputy President of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and Publisher of BusinessDay, Frank Aigbogun, raised concerns over the activities of some global technology firms. Speaking on behalf of the NPO, he alleged that certain companies scrape proprietary media content to train artificial intelligence models, sometimes by bypassing digital paywalls.
Aigbogun called on the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to work with the media industry to investigate claims that Big Tech dominance and anti-competitive practices are costing Nigerian media organisations up to 70 percent of their legitimate revenue, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars and resulting in job losses.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the Federal Government has already begun discussions with major technology companies, including Meta and Google, over the concerns raised by the media industry.
“The government will not allow anybody to come here, reap from our economy, and go away without giving back,” he said.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, alongside senior aides and special advisers to the President, also attended the meeting.
The engagement follows a statement issued by the NPO in January highlighting what it described as the growing threat posed by Big Tech operations to the sustainability of local media in Nigeria.
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