Nigeria Sets Up Audience Measurement Task Force

In Nigeria, Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed has set up a team of industry experts to establish a radio and television audience measurement system for the country.

This team is tasked with identifying a system that will support the growth of Nigeria's creative and entertainment industry; recommending a framework to support the sustainability of the audience measurement system, independent of the federal government; and recommending a payment framework for the key stakeholders in the industry. Team members will be representatives of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), Signal Distributors, and the Advertisers' Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), among others.

According to Lai Mohammed (pictured), the current diary audience measurement system is not ideal for the transitional phase before the switch over from analogue to digital television. 'It is imperative that we urgently put in place an industry framework that will ensure that content producers receive their just due for the value of the content they create, as well as provide objective guarantees to the advertising community on their return-on-investment on media placements. This will then have the overall effect of guaranteeing greater spending by the advertisers, who are all seeking to grow their market share', he added.