~ Says Soludo’s solar installation has cut cost, station to become world-class soon
By Ifeizu Joe
Recently, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) clocked 15 months on the saddle. THE RAZOR visited him and sat in an interview with him, where he disclosed how well he has faired in running the station, the reforms he has made and expected heights to attain.
Excerpts:
How has it been as the MD of ABS since you assumed?
In the last 15 months that I have been the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Anambra State Broadcasting Service, we have been working to change the dynamics of operations, improve our programming, improve our content, increase our visibility. We are now on Cable TV, free to air, and we hope that in the first quarter of 2026, we’ll be on GOTV. We are planning very hard to achieve that. In general, what we are doing is much, but I must tell you that we also have challenges, but of course there are no outfits without challenges, but we are working hard to surmount them.
I can also tell you there is much we can do, given that the governor has shown interest in the station, with the hope that we get to become the voice of the East. With that said, let me tell you that Mr Governor has really invested some good money here. The solar energy which he gave to the station has really cut cost down to about 25 percent, that has given us space to pay off debts which I inherited when I came in.
You inherited debt?
Yes, we inherited a lot of debt when we came in. Quite a huge one, in fact, we are taking about millions in three figures, when I say so, of course you know it’s over a hundred million. We had taxes unpaid, diesel debts and others, which we inherited. At some point, we were even supposed to go to court, but somehow, we were able to sort it out. Most of what we have made is what we have used to clear the backlog of debt – EEDC debt, power debt and all that.
Another big challenge we face is the very large number of staff which the station has. The governor has shown interest in cutting to size the number of persons and we have a memo we have done to him about that and hopefully, he will attend to it sometime soon. Once that is done, there is assurance that ABS will get to the height which it is expected.
What is the total staff strength of the station, and how many are you downsizing to?
Now, we have a total number of staff – we have staff in ministries, we have in Enugwu-Ukwu, Onitsha and of course, Awka. If we go by the nominal role, we have over 230 staff, and some of them will come to work just once a month, there are some you get to see only when you call for a general meeting or a meeting for reassessment of staff. We have done that twice in the last 15 months. We have put all these together and down in a memo to Mr Governor, and the essence is to have most of our casual staff step in as regulars. We have quite a number of casual staff who are very very hardworking, who earn not the best of wages. While we augment most of their earnings, just to ensure something better for them, which is more than what some people think, they are still not captured in the general salary quota of the station, and that is what we intend to do, and the only way to get that done is for Mr Governor to grant their full employment, so they can be absorbed into the station staff system. Once that is done, their productivity level will rise.
We must also understand that Anambra Broadcasting Service is still functioning like the normal civil service, where it is not necessarily about how well you do, but how long you have been around. And while that is a standard in the civil service, I want to say it is not the best of standards and doesn’t promote meritocracy. It’s just been about longevity and that has had its toll on the station too, and we hope to check all these with Mr Governor’s blessings.
So, still talking about the things we have been able to do, we have been able to bring down cost as I said because of the solar Mr Governor installed for us. We also still have the challenge of getting our terrestrial station in Onitsha back on the grid and that is where the support from the State Governor will come in too. We have been told that is already in the pipeline and that will be done soon.
Speaking to programmes and partnerships, we have a lot of them and we hope to explore them this year, 2026. I will like to keep it under wraps for now, but hopefully, once these deals come to light, we won’t be able to hide them again. So far, we have been able to get ABS to function better, we are currently remodeling studios; both the television and radio studios, all thanks to the governor and we have improved on our transportation and our buses are looking way better than they looked when I came in 15 months ago. For the compound, if you come in, you will agree with me that it looks better now as a place where people work. We hope to put the compound to very good use soon, we are going to put them to use that can also yield income, and further develop these places and make them generate more IGR, both for the state and for ABS. In the next 15 months, we should have all these intact.
Let me return to staff strength. What number is ideal to run the place well. Secondly, there was this film village you had here, what happened to it?
Okay, let me start with the last. The film village is still very active. Like you noted, there we have settings for films and we use there from time to time for filming of our documentaries and other such programmes because that was the initial plan. As I speak, we still do that, infact we are just working on extending the partnership we have to include having programmes there. So to answer your question, it is yes, the village is still very active.
Speaking about staff, considering that we are running a TV and radio station in Awka, a TV and radio station in Onitsha, we don’t need more than 100 staff, or at most 110 persons. Enugwu-Ukwu already has about 10 persons in total, but in Awka and Onitsha, we are talking about reporters, presenters and the rest, so we don’t need more than 100 or at most 110 persons who will do the job.
We learnt that some of your staff who are on secondment to ministries are still being paid by ABS, and one may think, what is the essence of sending them out, if your station is still catering for their emoluments?
That is another area that we hope that Mr Governor will look into. Once you are working with the ministry, you should be able to be catered for by the ministry. The governor is a listening governor, and we believe he will listen to us in this area too. I can tell you that out of the total staff strength of ABS, we have about 50 to 60 of them in the ministry, so already, these ones are not contributing anything to the station, and they still get paid. There earn leave allowances and all the other allowances, they get them and I think is something that if hopefully we get out of our way, we will begin to thrive and manage ourselves better.
Let me also tell you people that Mr Governor in his magnanimity has approved the purchase of some equipment and we are fixing our studios and that is helping us to boost production and productivity, and I believe we are climbing higher.
Which of your outfits between radio and television is a bigger revenue generator for your station?
Okay, currently, radio generates more than the TV, but TV has way more potentials to generate higher. It is so because the visual always appeal more to the people than audio. That is why social media is a big hit, but I didn’t also tell you that social media is one key area our revenue is expected to skyrocket. In the last 15 months since I came in, we have gotten our YouTube channel monitized. Though the earning is still low, but we are still growing it, but have not harvested even a dime from it.
