Nigerian musician WizKid was supposed to be in Uganda last Friday for a concert, courtesy of Star Times. However, the musician didn’t show up to the disappointment of many of his fans who had paid for the show.
When we contacted the Star Times Uganda spokesperson, Christine Nagujja for a comment, our calls went unanswered.
However, just like the fans in Uganda are cursing Star Times, the company’s sister outlet in Nigeria has left the government disappointed following a deal reportedly gone bad.
The Chinese digital television service provider signed a partnership in 2009 with national telecaster, the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), aimed at increasing content, building a terrestrial wireless digital television system and operating a pay television service.
In return, Star Times was given effective control of the entire NTA infrastructure and a 70% holding in the JVC, with the Nigerian telecaster getting 30%.
However, Nigeria’s Parliament believes the deal was reached at fraudulently, and at the beginning of this month MPs Yusuf Ayo and Chris Emeka Azubogu called for the investigation of Star Times.
“The house notes, with concern the NTA which has provided the entire infrastructure for the joint venture in addition to accepting the responsibility of assisting SCNTL to implement almost all the responsibility in the agreement was allotted only 30% of the shares while SCNTL despite its scant contribution was allotted 70% of the shares,” the MPs averred.
The house is also concerned that the JV agreement is grossly lopsided against the NTA which also ceded the intellectual property of the JV to Star Times “thus endearing a master servant relationship between the NTA and Star Times.”
It continues: “the house is further concerned that some of the staff of the NTA who in the negotiation of the agreement for the NTA are now working for SCNTCL for the implementation of the agreement. And that the Nigerian Government may be losing enormous revenues due to the lopsided and imbalanced nature of the agreement”.
It concludes by mandating the committee on information orientation, ethics and values to investigate the JVA between the Nigerian Television Authority and Star Communications Network Technology Co. Ltd to ascertain whether the interests of Nigeria were well represented.
The committee has only six weeks to report back to house ‘for further legislative action’.
Meanwhile, the developments in Nigeria come at a time when the Zambian Government entered an almost similar arrangement with the Star Times this year, despite public outcry and calls for officials to carry out due diligence on company and the terms of the deal before putting pen to paper.
Star Times is not new to controversy; apart from the WizKid concert that never was, the company was at one time switched off by national broadcast regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) over infringement of broadcasting rights.
And in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), its operating license was revoked after the company illegally used the public frequency for its telecasts.
