FG targets $1m, one million jobs from digital switch-over
By Kamarudeen Ogundele
The Federal Government says it hopes to generate one million jobs through the Digital Switch Over (DSO) by promoting the right content to the 24 million TV households in the country.
It also says the country is poised to attract about $1 million through innovation and local production of technology.
The Minster of Information and Culture, Alh Lai Mohammed, stated this at the unveiling of DSO and analogue switch-off timetable on Thursday in Abuja.
He said: “It will create jobs for at least one million Nigerians in the next three years. We are not quoting thus figure because we want to impress anybody.
“There is industry, manufacturing, innovative, content creation. The opportunity in terms of opportunity is huge.
There will be revenue from add on services. It will drive content quality and create jobs in musical and film industry.
It will be the best thing to have happened to the industry.” According to him, the rolling out of the DSO, which will be done in phases, signals the end of analogue transmission in the country.
Reeling out the timetable, the Acting Director General of Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Prof. Adukwu Idachaba, said the switch off of the analogue content will start with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on May 26, followed by Plateau and Kaduna States on June 17 and 30, respectively.
He added that Kwara will follow on August 3 with Enugu on September 1 and Osun September 30.
The states are already on Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) under phase 1. Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Yobe, Gombe and Imo are coming under phase 2 between April 29 and August 24.
The minister said the decision to kick-start the analogue switch off was a clear testimony to the commitment to complete the DSO process as soon as possible.
He said, “Before we embark on the analogue switch off in any state, we will ensure that the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) signal has covered at least 70% of the population in that state, while the remaining 30% will be covered by Direct-To-Home (DTH) satellite signal.
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“Please note that once the analogue signal is switched off, no one on the system will receive television signals anymore.
“Also, because of the topography of some areas like the Federal Capital Territory, the DTT signal could not effectively cover such areas.
In such cases, we will deploy DTH satellite signals to areas that are not covered by DTT signals. By complementing out DTT deployment with DTH satellite signals, we are ensuring that no one will be left out of the DSO.”
The minister said the government hoped to make the Set Top Boxes or decoders affordable to Nigerians.
He said, “To ensure the affordability of the set top boxes, the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture will reach out to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to ensure reduction in the tariff on the raw materials for the manufacture of the SetTop Boxes in Nigeria.
“We will aim at zero % tariff for the Completely Knocked Down components and not more than 5% tariff for the Semi-Knocked Down component, against the current tariff of 5% for the Completely Knocked Down components and 10% for the Semi-Knocked Down components.
By doing so, we will ensure that the Set Top boxes are within the reach of average Nigerians.
“The Federal Government will also support the Channel Owners and Content Providers through the implementation of the Audience Measurement system to guarantee a sustained stream of revenue from advertising for them to invest in the development of compelling content.”
