NBC Morobe building reopens after being condemned

By LARRY ANDREW
NATIONAL Broadcasting Commission NBC Morobe’s refurbished building was reopened by Communication and Information Technology Minister Timothy Masiu yesterday in Lae, after it had been condemned by health authorities in 2018.
NBC managing director Kora Nou told The National that for the first time in a long while, NBC was using its own funding to undertake major renovations to its stations in the provincial centres.
He said the repair and rebuilding of its assets would significantly boost operations in the provinces and NBC as a whole.
Nou said K8 million had been made available for the renovations by the government in the 2019 public investment programme (PIP) to undertake such major refurbishment of stations across the country to improve NBC’s transmission coverage.
“Of the K8 million allocated for NBC under the PIP project in 2019, only K1.5 million was released to NBC,” he said.
“The management and the board decided that of the K1.5 million, we would do major renovations for three condemned buildings.
“These were NBC New Ireland, NBC Morobe and NBC Gulf and we have used the funds to renovate our offices in Kavieng, Lae and Kerema.”