Publishers' Association Lauds Signing Of New Copyright Act | Business Post Nigeria (2023)

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA) has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the Copyright Amended Bill into law, which repeals the Copyright Act, Cap C28, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

President Muhammadu Buhari had, on March 17, 2023, assented to the Copyright Act 2022, which provides for the regulation, protection and administration of copyright in Nigeria.

This is contained in a statement by the President/Chairman-in-Council, NPA, Mr Uchenna Anioke.

He applauded the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian Copyright Commission Director General, Mr John Asein and the National Assembly for the legislation.

He added that the Act would go a long way in promoting creativity and encouraging more authors and writers for the educational advancement of Nigeria at large.

According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari has demonstrated commitment to the growth of publishing and creativity at large, expressing hope that this gesture will positively impact the country’s economy.

“Nigerian Publishers Association had been yearning for this development for a long and was happy to see it come to fruition.

“The signing into law of the bill will give more confidence to owners of copyright materials in Nigeria and offer them a favourable climate to operate just as their counterparts enjoy the same privilege elsewhere in the world.

“The new copyright amendment bill will also attract more players to the industry and give more job opportunities, thus, improving Nigeria’s economy,” NPA President said.

He appealed to all and sundry to support the initiative for the betterment of all.

“We equally appeal to all book pirates to desist from their nefarious acts, as it will not be business as usual for them with this new Copyright Amendment Act,” Mr Anioke added.

He said the bill would provide appropriate limitations and exceptions to guarantee access to creative works, among others.

“The new Copyright Act expands the rights of authors, raises the sanctions for criminal infringements and more adequately addresses the challenges posed by digital and online use of copyright works,” he said.

He said the enactment of the new Copyright Act “has again demonstrated this administration’s commitment to re-energizing Nigeria’s creative economy and making it more globally competitive in the digital age.”

Signing the law, President said, “The principal objectives of the new law, as outlined in section 1, are to: protect the rights of authors and ensure just rewards and recognition for their intellectual efforts; provide appropriate limitations and exceptions to guarantee access to creative works; facilitate Nigeria’s compliance with obligations arising from relevant international copyright treaties and conventions; and enhance the capacity of the Nigerian Copyright Commission for effective regulation, administration, and enforcement.

“The new Copyright Act expands the rights of authors, raises the sanctions for criminal infringements and more adequately addresses the challenges posed by digital and online use of copyright works. The Act also provides specially for the needs blind, visually impaired and print disabled persons to have access to learning and reading materials in accessible formats.”

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By Adedapo Adesanya

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, has reportedly resigned from the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Minister submitted his resignation letter to President Buhari in Abuja on Friday.

It is widely believed that Mr Sylva has the intention to contest the governorship election in Bayelsa State and will participate in the forthcoming All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election that is likely to hold anytime in April.

Mr Sylva had governed former President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state, Bayelsa, for one term and has constitutional rights to contest for another tenure of four years.

The Minister’s Senior Adviser on Media, and Communications, Mr Horatius Egua, has not denied or confirmed his boss’ alleged resignation, claiming he had not seen the resignation letter or be officially informed of the development.

Mr Sylva governed the state under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) between 2008 and 2012 but switched alliances with the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Recall that n 2007, a member of Action Congress (AC), Mr Ebitimi Amgbare, filed a suit to challenge his victory.

Mr Amgbare took the case all the way to the appeal court in Port Harcourt, and on April 15, 2008, that court overturned the decision of the Bayelsa State Election Petitions Tribunal and declared Mr Sylva’s election to be invalid.

This occurred despite the fact that the Bayelsa State Election Petitions Tribunal had previously ruled in Mr Sylva’s favour.

The five judges on the appellate court came to a conclusion without dissent and issued an order mandating that Speaker, Mr Werinipre Seibarugo, be sworn in to replace Mr Sylva in his role as acting Governor, with a new election to take place within the next three months.

On May 24, 2008, a new election was held, and Mr Sylva, who was standing again as the PDP candidate, was elected with an overwhelming majority of the votes, receiving 588,204 of around 598,000 total votes.

However, in 2012, his tenure was terminated by the Supreme Court, with an acting governor appointed to oversee the state.

President Buhari appointed the politician on August 21, 2019, to replace Mr Ibe Kachikwu, who earlier held the position.

Since the President self-appointed himself as the Minister of Petroleum, Mr Sylva is officially recognised as the junior minister.

He oversaw many developments in the Nigerian energy space, including the landmark Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, as well as driving President Buhari’s Decade of Gas initiative.

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By Adedapo Adesanya

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has urged artisans, traders, and other self-employed people to enrol in the Micro Pension Plan of the commission to guarantee themselves a functional retirement plan and avoid old age poverty.

This was the crux of the points made by the Head of Corporate Communications of PenCom, Mr Abdulqadir Dahiru, in Enugu on Thursday.

He stressed the importance of the Micro Pension Plan to Nigerians in the informal sector and those working in organizations with less than three employees.

Mr Dahiru noted that about 90 per cent of workers in Nigeria were in the informal sector, adding that this category of workers had no pension protection for old age and with the increase in people living long, there is a risk of old age poverty.

According to him, the Micro Pension Plan provides workers in the sector the opportunity to easily register and contribute in a flexible manner and in a safe and secure environment for their pension at retirement.

“The Micro Pension Plan is a flexible plan, where the artisans, traders and even a woman that sells fried beans cake (akara) can register with and agree on a periodic amount she/he would be contributing according to her/his earnings.

“The contributors, within this flexible Micro Pension Plan for all Nigerians in the informal sector, can even draw out 40 per cent of what they have saved for emergency demand.

He said the remaining 60 per cent would remain and await the retirement plan proper.

“So, it is a means of savings also for those in the informal sector and where they could fall back to and get financial assistance to keep their daily engagements going,” he said.

He noted that PenCom was desirous to ensure Nigerians in the informal sector enrolled and registered in the plan, adding that it had started sensitisation of the plan to communities, marketplaces, public gatherings, associations, and trade fair grounds across the country.

Mr Dahiru also urged Nigerians to embrace PenCom’s acquisition of residential mortgages (residential houses) scheme for Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders.

He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had approved 34 mortgage banks to work with the PenCom and Pension Fund Operators in providing mortgage financing to contributors to the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) with their RSA balance.

The PenCom spokesman said that the commission was determined to implement the scheme for the contributors to ensure that RSA holders have houses of their own at retirement.

Mr Dahiru noted that for contributors under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) to be eligible to use their RSA balance for the acquisition of residential mortgages, they must have contributed for five years (60 months) cumulative of employer and employee’s mandatory contributions.

“The same thing applies to the contributors under the Micro Pension Plan; even married couples, who individually met the eligibility criteria, were also eligible,” he said.

Explaining the limit for equity contribution that qualified a contributor, he said that the maximum allowed was at 25 per cent of the RSA balance.

He added that where 25 per cent of the RSA balance was more than the equity contribution, the RSA holder could only access the amount equivalent to the equity contribution required.

“Where 25 per cent was not sufficient for equity contribution, RSA holders may utilise Voluntary Contribution (VC) in line with the Voluntary Contribution guidelines,” he said.

He expressed the hope that the mortgage financing incentive would help to grow the number of contributors into the CPS scheme.

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By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Tech giant, Google, has promised to extend its financial services verification program to more countries after bringing 11 nations into the scheme as of 2022 as part of efforts to protect its users from fraud and scams, which it said increased in the year under review.

The financial services certification program requires advertisers to demonstrate that they are authorized by their local regulator to promote their products and services.

This measure adds a new layer of security against fraudsters and further safeguards people from financial scams.

According to Google, actions are quickly taken when coordinated threats are identified, with additional restrictions put in place to block the ability of fraudsters to harm consumers.

“Over a one-month period, we blocked and removed tens of thousands of malicious advertisements and took action against the accounts associated with the bad ads.

“Overall, in 2022, we blocked or removed 142 million advertisements for violating our misrepresentation policy and 198 million advertisements for violating our financial services policy,” a blog post from the reputable platform on its 2022 Ads Safety Report said.

As for the efforts to prioritise child safety, Google said it has always blocked harmful ads targeted at young kids, especially by filtering “mature ad categories such as sexually explicit content and ads for gambling, alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs.”

“When it comes to designing products and creating policies, one of our top priorities is to ensure the safety of kids and teens around the world.

“This includes blocking ad targeting based on age, gender or interests and preventing additional age-sensitive ad categories from serving to teens. We began rolling out these changes in Europe and completed that process globally last year.

“We also now prohibit ads promoting dating apps, contests and sweepstakes, as well as weight loss products to people under 18,” it further disclosed.

Commenting on how it has tackled misinformation, Google said the reliance on its platform for the hunt for credible information influenced the creation of “policies against harmful health claims and demonstrably false claims that could undermine trust and participation in elections.”

“In 2022, we blocked ads from running on over 300,000 publisher pages that violated these policies and blocked over 24 million policy-violating ads from serving.

“In addition, we blocked and removed over 51.2 million ads for inappropriate content including hate speech, violence and harmful health claims and 20.6 million ads for dangerous products or services such as weapons and explosives,” it stated.

Looking ahead to 2023, the search engine said it would continue to provide a safe and trustworthy ads experience for users.

“As 2023 continues, we will stay diligent in our efforts to combat abuse across our platforms while helping advertisers and publishers grow their businesses,” it assured.

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