Kenya Broadcasting Corporation CEO Naim Bilal is in talks with the government regarding a debt of Ksh71 billion.
The Senate Committee on ICT held a consultative meeting of legal and policy interventions in support of KBC on Wednesday, March 4, which was attended by the CEO as well as other members of the media house's management.
As part of the commercial revamping of KBC, the broadcaster proposed an affirmative action by the government by giving the corporation 50 per cent of all government advertising expenditure on radio and television.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, the CEO noted that the institution had appealed to the state to write off the loan in order to make it attractive for partnerships across the corporate world.
"It was one of the consultative meeting we have with either the Senate of National Assembly to update them on the status of the broadcasting corporation.
"The issue with the loan has been in the public domain for a long time. It was taken in 1989 and continues to appear in our books and ends up making us look unattractive for people who want to go into business ventures with us," he stated.
"It will be nicer to have it scrapped off our books and it has been presented to the government a number of times," he added.
He went on to add that the meeting was aimed at the broadcaster presenting its strategies towards achieving financial stability.
During the meeting, the broadcaster sought funding to cover the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) events in an attempt to raise its revenue streams.
"KBC is actively involved in the coverage of the Big 4 Agenda, the corporation seeks a budget approval of Ksh607.68 million for TV and Radio production costs and airtime.
"KBC is spearheading a public education campaign on BBI. The corporation seeks to partner with GoK in coverage of all planned activities on TV and radio platforms, hence seeks funding support to the tune of Ksh7.4 million," read part of the statement.
The broadcaster outlined a strategy to implement a comprehensive upgrade of KBC's broadcast and support ICT infrastructure including the deployment of an enterprise management system to facilitate automation of all functions of the corporation.
