The National Broadcasting Commission says Nigeria is ready for digital switch over as it has all the basic elements for the transition.
The Acting Director-General of the Commission, Professor Armstrong Idachaba disclosed that the country has already set out the template which would be replicated across the remaining cities.
“We are hoping as we have beginning to see when the federal government committed up to N9.4 billion for the payments of contracts that are associated with the DSO. Our hope is that with this development, here will be accelerated activities regarding the delivery of the entire DSO project.”
Idachaba further said the regulator has done a retrospective analysis of what has been done over time and identified the areas of gaps and believes that the second phase of the project will move faster to the new locations, which are apparently the big cities.
“We deliberately chose Jos for the pilot scheme for its several levels of significance including, being a little city with beautiful landscape with historical resume of artistic creation, like first Nigeria TV station, first coloured TV was set up in Jos and a lot of top-notch creative programmes are from the city and the experience in Jos is very rewarding. This is the same in other places the DSO had rolled out. The pictures are good with qualitative contents and there is fulfilment from the beneficiaries.”
According to the NBC boss, the approach is simply to build on what has been done before.
He however said with regards to contents, there are certain aspects of contents that are not currently on the Free TV platform that needs to be put up there.
“For example, there are no kid channels, which are very critical for TV viewership because of children population and interest in TV. Similarly, Sports is not quite reflected within the bouquet and we know that Nigerians are always eager for sports. We are deliberately introducing contents that will galvanise more of those interests in terms of engaging kids and sports programmes.
“We also want to introduce certain content producers within the ecology like the motion picture producers and several other groups. We want to deliberately and strategically get the creative people to own channels, not just businessmen and women
“This will help them to get visibility and the opportunity to commercialize their artistic creations. We also want to increase the visibility of electronics programmes of guide options so that there will be more data reports and data from government agencies on all the platforms.
“There is a proposition on the Set-Up Box system that we have adopted that allows interface with the internet. It is already in the STB but we have not really propagated it and we want to move forward by engaging the telecommunication companies so that anytime we roll out, we will be able to extend not just the digital transmission in terms of broadcasting but also the access to internet and telecommunication.”
Speaking on the next move in terms of the roll-out, the NBC DG said the team will be going to Lagos shortly and before the third quarter of this year intends to cover at least five more states and by the plans, by the middle of 2022 hopefully complete the digital switchover in Nigeria.
“There is a big ambition to achieve this national assignment and the good news is that all the component players within the ecology are ready to go. The signal distributors are ready and as we speak, they are setting up their infrastructure in Lagos Port-Harcourt and Kano preparatory to the rollout. The box manufacturers are also working to ensure the availability of boxes needed per city.”
On funding, Idachaba further submitted that the 9.4 billion approved by the government recently is not all the funds needed for the transition adding that; “The N9.4 billion is money that has just been given for contractual engagements in settling people and outfits that are supposed to deliver certain services.
“There is a company that is handling satellite services and we have owed them some money and they are going to get the chunk of the money. He is optimistic that the approved money will be released to effect payments soon. “If I get the body language well, I think there are obvious signs that money will be released on time and the usual bottlenecks will not happen this.”
He however said going forward there is a new financial model in the DSO operation.“We hope that the broadcasters, those who own the channels will now pay the people who are carrying their signals while signal distributors will evolve a way to pay those providing satellite services. The government will be absolved of any financial obligations.
” However, NBC will have to find ways to take assist in the transition, especially with details of logistics mission and other things that will be necessary for the process. But largely, we want the process to be self-sustaining.”
On the issue of accessibility, he said those in the low social equilibrium will be assisted in a strategic manner. “It is also contemplated by the white paper that digital team with the supervision of the NBC will look at the pricing because we are giving this box manufacturing business to entrepreneur Nigerians who might want to maximize profit but government has to consciously watch how they fix those prices in order to remain affordable.
“The box manufacturers said they can engage the people on their own, the state government the civil service structure to arrange a financing plan where people just take the boxes and pay overtime till they defray the cost.
“Another way is to encourage the local government, NGO, social responsibility organisations and other groups to purchase the boxes and distribute them free of charge to lower class of the society.”
According to him, Nigeria is presently miles away compared to other countries in Africa in respect of the digital switch over project.
“Nigeria has missed the digital switch over dates twice, 2012 and 2020. But the country has made real great efforts to get it concluded this term because of the clear and deliberate political will and financial backing from the government.
“So far the cities of Jos, Kaduna, Ilorin, Enugu, Abuja, Oshogbo have witnessed the roll over successfully, remaining 31 more states,” the NBC boss added.
PIAK
