The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has suspended the licence of DAAR Communications Plc, owners of African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower, Silverbird, Rhythm FM and some state broadcasting stations.
NBC is the broadcast regulator of the Nigerian government.
Modibbo Kawu, Director-General of NBC, announced the shutdown at a press briefing in Abuja on Friday.
He said the action was taken due to the failure of the stations to comply with license renewal procedures.
Kawu said all affected media houses must suspend operation within 24 hours of the notice.
NBC in 2021 asked broadcast stations to settle their debt of licence fees or risk their names being published in the national dailies.
The commission also threatened to revoke their licences and assign frequencies withdrawn from debtor stations to interested operators after two weeks of publication.
It said the decision was necessitated because the operators pay little or no attention to the prompt payment of their licence fees, noting that it will not fold its arms and watch the stations continue to violate the provisions of the Commission’s establishment Act.