‘We’re putting Kaduna Media Corporation on path of glory’

Ibrahim Ismaila Ahmed is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kaduna State Media Corporation (KSMC). In this interview he reviews his one year of office, his innovations and the way forward. Excerpts:   How has the transition from TV broadcasting to radio been so far? Well, for me, I don’t think the transition […]

Ibrahim Ismaila Ahmed is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kaduna State Media Corporation (KSMC). In this interview he reviews his one year of office, his innovations and the way forward. Excerpts:

 

How has the transition from TV broadcasting to radio been so far?

Well, for me, I don’t think the transition has been that difficult because I started my career from radio broadcasting in Radio Nigeria Kaduna, I did the basic and intermediate and advanced announcer’s course in FRCN Training School in Shogunle, Lagos, now it is the National Broadcast Academy. 

So it was natural for me to transit from radio to television, and it wasn’t difficult for me to come back to where I started, but I think where it was difficult was the fact that here is a documentary producer, a news caster now being asked to come and be a broadcast administrator. I thought I was to come help galvanize people, galvanize them to do programmes , to do jingles, documentaries, etc. not knowing I would be coming to deal with issues of engineering, staffing, promotion, fake results, security etc.

What did you meet on ground?

The Kaduna State Media Corporation (KSMC), comprising radio and television services, is among the oldest media setups in Nigeria. The Kaduna State Radio took over from the defunct Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).

The best word to describe what I met is quagmire, the organization was in shambles, which was what I met when I assumed duty in December 1, 2016, it had no basic infrastructure, no equipment, no single toilet, and the people simply moved into the bush, it was just a sanctuary for mediocre staff.

But get me right, there were really some fantastic staff but the greater majority had no business at KSMC, you either have people who are supposed to retire, really ragtag, mediocre staff, that was what I met, the offices were ramshackle, and the staff were only waiting for salaries to be paid as at when due and no accountability, no vouchers, they just write on foolscap paper, that was what was happening.

So the first thing I did, I studied the situation for three weeks, by the way I didn’t get any handover notes. The person I took over from was desperate to leave. And there was no single coin in the coffers of the corporation. So I asked the heads of departments to brief me, there was no secrecy, files were being pilfered, and custodians of the files were divulging information.

Payments were being made without vouchers. I checked and there was a chartered accountant but he was just dumped somewhere, I asked him to do whatever was required, they came up with a three level for approval, after approval a selection is made before a bank schedule is made, by the way we do e-payment. We have artists that we pay N6-7,000, people that do request, security guards, etc. So as the accounting officer I know each kobo that goes out. I set up a committee on fuel supply, we do e-payment to fuel stations. When I came in there was N9 million debt for diesel which we paid, now we pay according to our needs.

How about programmes transmission?

We’re the most consistent radio station, major players, in terms of rating no other station comes close except maybe Freedom Radio, Kano, not even my alma mata, FRCN Kaduna.

Radio services of the KSMC comprise of three main stations at the Headquarters and two community stations, one each in Kafanchan and Zaria.At the Headquarters, we have the Kaduna State Radio AM service, the capital sound 90.9FM Stereo and the KADA FM. At Kafanchan, we have the Rockside FM Radio and the Queen FM Radio located in Zaria

We have programmes like Bazarku ake Rawa, I met Kassarmu a Yau, we revitalized it, they are current affairs programmes, I am not bothered about controversy, it’s about adding value. We are balanced in our reportage and listeners contribute.

What happened when I came was that once overhead comes you see a flurry of activities for one or two days before it dies down, and I said no, we cannot transmit 24 hours on diesel, so we decided to transmit for 4 and half hours daily, and we announced to our listeners. After two months we saw that we can expand to eight hours and we did and also told our listeners. From there we expanded again to 10 hours 5.30am-12.30pm and then from 3.30pm, you know listenership drops from 12 noon then it peaks up later in the afternoon from 3pm till close down, for Kapital sound its 1.30 am. We are also serving Plateau, Nasarawa, Niger etc. on our AM service.

What  major projects have you embarked upon?

I said KSMC is analogous to someone who had a Yamaha or Suzuki of the 70s and now you are trying to give that same person a BMW 7-series, I say within one week that person will knock that engine. In my opinion KSMC is kindergarten, we need to move it to primary, secondary, before tertiary level that government is envisaging.

When I came, Governor el-Rufai’s aides had already three lots of contract to revitalize KSMC. One, to totally construct a multi-billion naira building, and second they will restructure the staff, they will train and recruit new staff, and the third lot was to supply new digital equipment to the new building. Consultants for the building had been engaged, and for the restructuring had also been engaged, and process for the TV equipment had some glitch so they had to restart it all over.

So after assessment I did a memo that we need to do a media convergence, our TV in Kufena House with the HQ in Wurno House. The Governor bought the idea, gave me support to do a mini-digitization where both TV and on-line will be working together so that by the time we move into the new building we will be in line with modern trends.

So you see what we have done, we are now the most consistent radio/TV station, what we have done in the last one has not been done in the last 30 years.

Really there is no competition, go and see the ratings. We are already laying fibre optics cable from our headquarters to Pinnacle Communications Limited the licensed service provider for Digital Terrestrial Television in Kaduna which is on Rabah Road. This is aimed at diversifying KSMC’s transmission platforms for quality, wider reach, accessibility and more revenue. This is the way to go, because people have migrated in droves away from the poor and outdated VHF/UHF to digital platforms where you use Set Top Boxes for sharp, stable and quality content.

What does going digital entail for listeners/viewers?

Using fiber optics  means you’ll not lose quality whether audio or visual, the way it is from the original, people are still using set-top boxes, we want to go digital, even with the switch over we will continue to transmit until NBC says shut down. Other smaller competing private stations in Kaduna have been on digital and we are not and we are also focusing on content.

To put KSMC on the path of digitization, we are right now pepping up the current radio and television services while overhauling the power supply machinery. We are also progressively updating the skills of staff towards the planned high-end work environment. This will help keep in focus, the statutory mandate of KSMC – to inform, educate and entertain the people of Kaduna and neighbouring States.

How about staff matters?

I told you about the three lots, part of the mandate was to verify all staff, so the consultants did so. Since I came I did not see some staff, one is paralyzed but is still being paid, one in Rigasa I’ve not seen him till now, people that were supposed to retire since 2016-2017, they doctored their certificates, these were the people that were retired. Report on social media said we sacked, we did not sack, we retired some, others were sent to Head of Service, they are supposed to be in jail but maybe you have repented and reformed so go to HOS office. So there will be opportunity for taking qualified staff as approved by the Governor. We are looking for Director of Engineering who has COREN, no single certified engineer in KSMC. We are looking for broadcasters, they can come from sister stations.

We are looking for graphic artist, people who can direct drama, documentaries, outside broadcast and so on. It was done online, about 2,000 applied, we are screening them, most of the guys we are short listing are qualified so we can make KSMC great.

What about advertisement?

We were making an average of N2.8 million and N3.2 million on average per month in terms of revenue but we started moving up to 7, 8 and N9 million. In October last year we peaked N15 million.

Tell us about the new building.

The new building which will cost N1.9 billion will be delivered in February 2019. We signed the contract about three months ago and the construction has since commenced. The building will be the best of its kind in Nigeria when completed. It will be equipped with global standard broadcast equipment.

What is your greatest challenge?

People are only bent on seeing money in their pockets, they are used to getting bad money, some prefer to do patch patch. Now are going for training, last year we have trained 30 people, 18 for TV. Every month two staff go to NTA TV College Jos training school, and we fly people to National Broadcast College Lagos.