A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NIGERIAN TELEVISION AUTHORITY (NTA) LAFIA

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NIGERIAN TELEVISION AUTHORITY (NTA) LAFIA

Nigerian television authority in its recent development in the history of expansion programme of the NTA to reach all the nooks and crannies of the Nigerian society and beyond with its programme. The station came to light as a result of the creation eleven additional states including Nasarawa state by the Abacha Military Administration on the first of October, 1996.

Sequel to this, the NTA national headquarters was directed to extend its presents to the state capitals of the newly created states on Friday the first of October, 1996.

They were given an office accommodation at the present Deputy governor’s office from where they operated until the station was built in 2002. Their first assignment was to solicit support of the state Military Government, the Emirate Council as well as the local government council to ensure appropriate land for the establishment of the station.

With the cooperation of Emir of Lafia, His Royal Highness Alhaji Mustapha Agwai II, the second General Manager Yahaya Sule went around the town, spotted and admired the present location and the land was secured and approved and allocation to NTA by the Emirate Council and state government on 3^rd of November, 2000, while the site plan was presented on 20^th December, 2000. On the 9^th September, 2003, NTA was invited by the local government council in a letter: 9^th September 2003/LLG/WD/LAN/CL/466 for the processing of the clearance of the certificate of occupancy (C of O). The land occupied by NTA Lafia is about 350 by 450 metres.

Following this, the contract for the construction of the station was awarded by the then DG Mr. Ben Bruce in 2000. By the year 2002, the construction work was completed and the installation of communication gadgets including the mast and other engineering facilities began.

NTA Lafia, is located at the western part of Lafia on a hilly landscape along NTA road at Tudun Amber.

Comprising of six departments: Programme, News, Engineering, administration and finance, NTA Lafia  is headed by a General Manager, while each department is headed by a Manager and assisted by Assistant Managers.

Transmitting  on Channel 9, NTA Lafia operates on a 5 kilowatts UHF (Ultra High Frequency) transmitter, radiating signals on 204 frequency to all parts of the state including some part of neighbouring state of Benue, Plateau, Abuja, Kogi and Kaduna states.

Every organization, and of course a television outfit is recognized or identified by a popular slogan called motto. For NTA Lafia, initially when the station started skeletal services, it was used to being identified with the slogan of the state which reads “NTA Lafia, Your Solid Station”.

Programmes that were created then apart from news include “City Limit” a weekly panoramic browsing of the activities within the state capital. Others were “Youth Circle” religious programmes; “Islam Calling” and “Christian Half Hour”.

As earlier stated, NTA Lafia is made up of six departments: Administration, Programmes, News and Current Affairs, Engineering, Administration, Finance, Marketing and each headed by a Manager and Assistant Managers.

These managers constitute the governing body of the station called management. The station is headed by a General Manager who is also the leader of the management team. He presides over the day-to-day running of the station.

The management team is responsible for formulating local policies of the station, programmes formulations, schedule and effective performance of the station, revenue generation, expenses etc. It supervises and coordinates all t6he activities of the entire station, directing operations, providing checks and balances, ensures, adherence and compliance to set down rules and regulation for the performance of the staff, implementation of the policies and programmes of the National Headquarters to which NTA Lafia is a branch, the management, through General manager reports directly to the Director General at the Corporate Headquarters in Abuja.

1.     Administration Department is responsible for all administrative activities, staff list, purchase of stationeries, fuel etc., supervising staff movement in and out with respect to reporting duty, monitoring performance, leave procedures, coordinating the activities of all the departments, scheduling management meeting, staff meeting, visitation to and from NTA, maintaining clean environment,, keeping and up to date records of all the activities of the staff and station, writing all correspondence with all and sundry in relation to NTA function, security operations bordering of staff and facilities at all times as well as representing the management and the station as at when due. Admin also coordinate staff training, internal trainings, seminars, workshops and courses.

2.     It is the responsible of the programmes department to design functional programmes for both local and network transmission. Draw out effective schedule for programme transmission. To ensure effective production, programmes designs, programme plans, transmission schedule (both quarterly and daily schedule), write scripts, direct and coordinate film, editing for programmes, news, marketing, supervises and assigns cameramen for various productions, conduct weekly meeting for the preview of previous activities especially transmission, deliberate on the feedback on management post-mortem of programmes transmitted, previous week, implements directive from management or NTA headquarters regarding programme production and transmission. It is also expected to generate revenue through programme sponsorship and so on.

3.     News and Current Affairs department is responsible for producing news items and current affairs related programmes. Treats news releases coming from the society, covering both government and private functions for news, generating revenue through what is called “LTP” and acronym for “Let Them Pay” news items. It is expected to keep the society always current with what’s going regarding politics, security, health, business etc.

4.      The Marketing department main function is to generate revenue for the station. This can be done through securing sponsorship for the production and transmission of our programmes, or getting adverts, or securing payment for airing of programmes produced outside. The marketing also helps in security LTPs, or retainer-ship or barter business for the station.

5.     In regards to finance departments, it receives cash payment and acts as the treasurer of the station, keeping all records of cash payment into the station as well as the records of all purchases on behalf of the station. It is responsible for preparing staff salaries and posting it to the headquarters for payment. When the salaries are paid, finance take the schedule of payment to the banks.

6.     As the name implies, the engineering service provides all the facilities for producing programmes and transmission. It maintains, or repairs faulty facilities. It operates the machines for the relevant staff work.

NTA Lafia emerged at the thick of expansion development initiative pervading the entire scope of the Authority’s operations.

Under this dispensation, as part of the authority’s bid to consolidate on its achievements in the broadcasting world NTA has introduced additional channels. NTA International transmitting news and other programmes to United Kingdom, Canada and the Middle East. Similarly, the NTA News 24 channel also came on board to buttress the international scope.

The drive NTA both at state and national levels is to reach to provide excellence services in broadcasting activities, is attributed to selfless service, dedication and endless commitment by professional team of committed and hardworking staff and management focused at achieving high standard in programming and advertising.

An advertisers delight, NTA is committed to meeting the dreams and aspirations of modern advertising world in all its ramifications as the leading TV broadcast outfit in Africa. No doubt that, it is not an understatement from quality programming to excellent reception and spread, the authority tagged NTA: THE LARGEST TV NETWORK IN AFRICA, under the slogan “You Can’t Beta The Reach”.