Why BBC is connecting Nigerians to the world – Unsworth

Fran Unsworth is the Director, World Service Group and Deputy Director of News and Current affairs of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). She was in Lagos few days ago to make public, the planned local network services of BBC in three Nigerian languages: Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin. Excerpts Why is the BBC introducing new language […]

Fran Unsworth is the Director, World Service Group and Deputy Director of News and Current affairs of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). She was in Lagos few days ago to make public, the planned local network services of BBC in three Nigerian languages: Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin. Excerpts

Why is the BBC introducing new language services in Nigeria?
The key reason we are doing this is because we have had a very successful Hausa service here in Nigeria and we have been very successful in English services too. So we feel we have better opportunities to reach new audiences. That is why we are looking at local Nigerian languages such as Yoruba, Igbo and pidgin.  Our aim which is also in tandem with the BBC at the global office, is about connecting the world.
So, by commencing new language services in Nigeria and other places, we want to keep telling news stories and reflect  the  way of lives of people where we run these services. We bring the world to them while we also take them to the world. Basically, we can say it’s a mixed agenda we are trying to carryout in this part of the world.
As the world has become a global village, we feel the role of BBC world service is more vital than ever. We believe we have a responsibility to connect different sections of the world, and it is the reason we are kick-starting these new services. We understand the role language services can play in all of these. So basically, it is about uplifting local languages and reaching more audiences.
Who will you say are your audiences?
Well, the average audience anywhere in the world is 32. Half of the world is now under the age of 35 which is a reflection of how young the world is getting. However, it is not specifically that we are only targeting the youth but also the older generation. What we are trying to do really is to be sure we are on the right platform, producing right contents and be able to meet the challenge of how consumption habits are changing.
And as the world is changing and the mobile telephony is growing, we are thinking of products we can put in that space, because that is where our audiences are growing. Of course, television and radio are still very strong in this part of the world, so we are going to keep that and we are still thinking how we can maintain that. Mansur Liman, who is the Head of Hausa services of BBC will be the Head of these services and he and his team are working hard on how to get all of these going for our audiences.
Nigeria being a diverse country has other languages apart from these three you have highlighted, are there plans to run services in these others too?
Not at the moment. One has to realize that we have a very limited amount of money. And we are looking at how we can spend it in other parts of the world and other parts of Africa. We shall be launching new language services in Ethiopia and Eritrea.  We are also adding another language service in India. All in all, we are planning nine additional language services with the existing 29 that we have. So, we really need to see to how we can apply these funds across.
Specifically, what are the programmes to be run on these language services?
We understand that this is an entrepreneurial society just as it is in other part of Africa. Our team will keep working on how we can put all of that in context. We shall also be focusing on health, technology and whole lots of things that the world will be interested in.
As it is widely known, Yoruba is being spoken in the South West and so many  other parts of Nigeria. The same goes for Igbo which is spoken in the South-Eastern region. The Pidgin English is widely spoken in Nigeria, some parts of West Africa like Ghana, Cameroon and the Creole in Sierra Leone. The BBC has been doing lots of programmes in Pidgin English and we felt it is another area we will like to launch our contents into.
These are the main areas we want to look into.
As I said, these language services will be residual here in Lagos because it is the commercial nerve centre and the tourism headquarters of the  South West and Nigeria.
Are you aware that there are local broadcast stations running their services basically in some of the identified languages?
We are aware that there are local broadcast stations in Nigeria that have been offering these services, but our role basically will be complimentary.
From the highlighted programmes, what are those things BBC services in these local languages will be doing differently?
The BBC because of its scale is blessed with many people around the world. A lot of people here in Africa, lots of people in Asia and South America, North America, Middle East, among others. We used these people to tell stories and that is exactly what BBC has to offer here, which means we can tell international stories and we can also tell regional stories and the local stories. So we shall be using the expertise of our people in other parts of the world to tell the stories for local people, and also using people here to tell their stories to the outside world.
That’s why we believe BBC has a lot to offer despite the fact that Nigeria has a very vibrant local media. We are not just looking at the audiences of needs but also the audiences’ wants. The local people will need to choose BBC because they know it will offer them what they cannot get from their local media.
On which broadcast frequency will these services be aired?
Well, obviously we can’t run continuous news updates on Nigerian FM platforms. We are not allowed but we will appreciate if the Code is changed because we believe people should be allowed to have access to as much as information they can get.
But as it is, we are actually looking towards the digital space. We will try to reach people through the social media, the web, apps, and androids. That’s probably where we shall be exploring. Of course, we will still be having BBC news minutes on FM stations, but of course we would be directing people to the digital space. And that surely will  give us the leverage to tell who we are and what we are about.
In disseminating current affairs and news bulletin, we may have to partner a number of local stations who may have to be giving that out to the public.
Are you aware that there is a growing trend among Nigerians who are now doing away with Pidgin English? How do you deal with that?
Well, the BBC still has a tradition, and which is going to people in the towns where they operate. We also have local radio stations in Britain which run the programmes with the kind of language and tone they speak. As much as we are aware that an average home want to speak qualitative English language too, we know for sure that the medium of expression in casual interaction is pidgin, and that is even  as we are going to be running Yoruba and English language services too.