Nigeria's delusional-sounding national propaganda tzar says international brands broadcasting TV commercials on international TV channels like CNN International (DStv 401) inside Nigeria, as well as brands appearing in TV commercials aired on Nigerian television but filmed in other countries like South Africa, will now be fined R3 930 (N100 000) every time such a TV advert is shown on television.
Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's often-criticised and deemed out-of-touch minister of information and culture, explained his latest outrageous-sounding scheme during an interview on the NTA channel's Good Morning Nigeria programme on Monday morning.
Lai Mohammed now wants to force all international brands and companies who advertise and run TV commercials during international soccer content on for instance MultiChoice's SuperSport TV channels on DStv, to also spend money and advertise during lesser watched Nigerian Premier Football League games.
The latest crazy-sounding plan hatched by the caustic Lai Mohammed is to fine all advertisers - for instance Guinness - who dare to advertise on CNN International and other internationally distributed TV channels carried on MultiChoice'sDStv, TStv or China's StarTimes, 100 000 naira for every single time such a TV commercial is shown on any of these pay-TV services.
Lai Mohammed has in the past been highly critical of international TV news channels like CNN International, as well as content like M-Net West Africa and MultiChoice Nigeria's Big Brother Naija.
"Let’s assume you have brought in La Liga, and during the matches, Guinness is advertised. We will compel you, we will compel Guinness to also advertise when we are playing a local league. That is the only way we can grow this industry but as can be expected, we have had very few supporters."
Lai Mohammed said that "If you do an advert in South Africa, you put it on CNN International and we look at that advert and we see that the advert was not made in Nigeria but actually made in South Africa, or you see that 5 times a day, it is on CNN, you pay half a million to us."
"The half a million will go to the Content Development Fund."
How Lai Mohammed wants to enforce his latest crazy scheme and how any advertiser can realistically be forced where they are to advertise, or how much, and what platforms, is not clear.
Besides TV commercials, a large number of Naija music videos have been and continue to be produced and filmed in South Africa.
Lai Mohammed appears to be cluelessly uninformed about how the global advertising industry works and doesn't understand that he will damage Nigeria's struggling economy even further.
If forced to pay fines, even more brands will simply leave and reject Nigeria as a territory and will remove their earmarked advertising spend instead of being forced to spend it on platforms with not enough or not the right target market of viewers, and in places where they don't see a return and where they don't want their product messages to be seen.
Lai Mohammed said that "What is common today is to see products made in Nigeria but the advert for those products are actually probably done in South Africa or in the United States".
"So, we amended the code to say that if a product you want to advertise in Nigeria territory is made in Nigeria, grown in Nigeria or processed in Nigeria, then you must make sure that the advert is also produced in Nigeria."
"Gulder is made, processed in Nigeria. If you go to South Africa to produce an advert which you are going to air to Nigerians because Nigerians consume Gulder, what we have amended the code to say is that for every time that advert is aired in Nigeria either on radio or television, you pay a fine of N100 000."
"We are not stopping you from making your production in America or South Africa but if you are going to advertise in Nigerian territory, you will pay a fine of N100 000. In other words, if Gulder makes an advert in South Africa and it is shown on NTA, if it shows it 10 times a day, it will pay a N100 000 fine 10 times," said Lai Mohammed.
"We went further to say that if a company should invest $1 million in bringing English Premier League to Nigeria, that company must also be ready to spend 30% of that $1 million in producing a local content along the same line."
"In other words, if Maltina or Guinness decides to bring in EPL, which is English football, we have no problem with that. But they must also invest in covering our local league to the tune of 30% of what he has paid."