The N50m budget for social media

 DigitalSENSE Business News:

 To many Nigerians, especially the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) new media practitioners, the news that the Federal Ministry of Information will this year, 2014, spend the sum of N50 million on social media has left the industry divided.
According to reports made available to DigitalSENSE Business News, the recent submission of the 2014 Federal Government budget has exposed a lot of issues which are now in the public domain, including the subject on the N50m budget by the Information Ministry for social media.
The N50m voted by the Federal Ministry of Information is expected to be spend on developments of social media platforms and networking with other platforms.
For the avoidance of doubt, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines social media as forms of electronic communication, namely as Web sites for social networking and microblogging; through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content such as videos.
As gathered by DigitalSENSE Business News “The budget’s details also indicate that the development of social media platforms and networking with other platforms will cost the Information ministry N50m in 2014.”
The sum was part of the details of the 2014 budget proposals submitted to the National Assembly (NASS) by the Federal Minister in-charge of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on behalf of Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that the N50m will also be spent on engagement with foreign news agencies, and production of specialised publicity materials for foreign audience.
Whereas the Information ministry is to spend the sum of N300m on what was tagged ‘external publicity cum media insertions in foreign print and electronic media in selected cities,’ some school of thought argued that if half of this sum is to be spent on local media it will have more impact than ever imagined.
This school of thought also says that aside giving enabling impetus for the local media to survive, it would provoke generation of local contents, which will be of course shared with the global media in all formats including texts, video and pictorial as well as via normal broadcasting when properly formatted.
They insisted that charity must begin at home and there is need to develop whatever content required for ‘international’ image laundering, thus building the kind of developmental media that the nation deserves.
On the other hand, another school of thought argues that it is all about lack of trust in the Nigerian media and since the current state is yet to abate, there is nothing really wrong with the Ministry of Information looking outside in the course of so-called image laundering.
Investigations by DigitalSENSE Business News showed that as at the time of filing this report that the Ministry of Information whose online presence is ‘http://fmi.gov.ng/’ has a Twitter handle - @FMINigeria, Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FMINigeria, YouTube - http://fmi.gov.ng/#  hence, one wonders on whose interest a new development of a social media platform will now be and to the extent it will cost N50m this year.
Although all the social media accounts may not be an end on itself and invariably may all not be in working conditions, industry watchers still astonished on the cost herein associated with the social media claims by the Ministry requires less to be desired.
Therefore, the Ministry of Information is implored to look inwards and explore it in the name of laundering the image of the country from all ramifications; after all, charity, in all sense of it, must begin at home.



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