As part of activities to celebrate this year COSON week, former Director-General of the National Film & Video Censors Board and former Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Mr. Emeka Mba, will deliver the 2019 COSON Lecture, one of the key events of the biennial, which will hold on Saturday, December 7, 2019 at the COSON House Arena in Ikeja.

Emeka Mba who currently heads Questech Media, a specialized media and entertainment consulting practice, has more than 27 years’ experience in the converged fields of media, entertainment and technology, as well as regulatory policy management. He is considered by many of his peers as a leading visionary and thinker on the role of government policy and technology in shaping the trajectory and growth of the sector, and its impact on social and economic development.

Mr. Mba was Managing Director of Phillips Media Entertainment Ltd, a specialized media entertainment consulting service of Phillips Consulting Nigeria, and was for eight and a half years, Regulatory Affairs Manager for MultiChoice Nigeria, responsible for Regulatory strategy and Policy.

In 2014, Emeka Mba as DG of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) played a historic role in the development of collective management of copyright in Nigeria by brokering peace between COSON and the Nigerian broadcasting industry which led to the agreement for the payment of copyright royalties by all broadcasting stations in the country.

Speaking on the choice of Mr. Mba for the 2019 COSON Lecture, COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, said: “No one in Nigeria has the depth of hands-on experience that Mr. Emeka Mba has with respect to creative content and the management of rights. He is brilliant. I am looking forward to a very exciting 2019 COSON Lecture.”

The inaugural COSON lecture in 2013 was delivered by Prof Helge Ronning, Chairman, Norwegian Copyright Development Association (NORCODE) with His Excellency, Mr. Rolf Ree, Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria as Guest of Honour. The 2015 COSON Lecture was delivered by Prof. Bankole Sodipo with His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as Guest of Honour and legal luminary, Prince Bola Ajibola, as Special Guest. The last COSON Lecture in 2017 was delivered by the Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, one-time Deputy Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Chairman of the lecture was the nation’s guru of Intellectual property law, Prof Egerton Uvieghara.

With the quality of the minds that have consistently gathered at each of the lectures, the COSON Lecture series has easily become Nigeria’s most sought after event for the discussion of creativity, content and developments in intellectual property across the globe.