Media, Politics

Nigeria’s Federal Government has promised to assist neighbouring Republic of Niger to successfully transit from analogue to digital broadcasting under the Digital Switch Over, DSO, project.

Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, made the promise on Monday, June 12, when he hosted in his office in Abuja Koubra Abdoulaye, the visiting Minister of Communication of Niger.

He said Nigeria would make available to Niger the legal framework for its DSO project, as well as its expertise in the area of signal distribution, Set-Top-Box, STB, manufacturing and content production.

The minister said the Nigerian government had the political will to make the DSO a success story for the benefit of all Nigerians and to the ECOWAS Community in the areas of the application of the Digital Dividends, despite the challenges.

He listed the challenges facing the DSO as including the availability and cost of STBs and the Content of Broadcast.

”Because of digitization, we now have opportunity for many more channels of programming. When all the technology is in place what are you going to feed your public through all these available channels? The easiest way to colonise the minds of our people is via the Mass Media. If we do not seriously address the issue of Compelling Indigenous Content, we will be exposing our population to further colonisation,” Mohammed said

Giving an overview of the DSO in Nigeria, he said two Signal Distributors had been licensed – Integrated Television Services Limited from the Transmission Infrastructure of the government-owned NTA and the privately-owned Pinnacle Communications Ltd; that 13 companies have been licensed to manufacture STBs; that a company, INVIEW Ltd, had been contracted to make available a Conditional Access System software for the boxes or decoders while another, CCNL, was the Signal Aggregator.

The minister told his Nigerien counterpart that Nigeria launched the pilot scheme of the DSO in Jos, Plateau State, April 30, 2016, rolled out in the nation’s capital, Abuja, December 22, 2016 and will also roll-out in six states in the six geopolitical zones of the country by the end of June 2017.

Speaking earlier, the Nigerien minister said she was in Nigeria to learn how the country had achieved a huge success in its DSO project, noting that Nigeria was way ahead of other countries in Africa in the analogue-to-digital transition in broadcasting.

Abdoulaye said Niger Republic held Nigeria in high esteem and commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his leadership role in the ECOWAS.

The host minister later took his Nigerien counterpart and her entourage on a tour of some of the critical infrastructure of the DSO, including the Control Room and Transmission Station of Pinnacle Communications, facilities of the ITS in the NTA and the Call Centre.

Nigeria and other ECOWAS Member Countries have agreed to adopt a Common Minimum Standard for Set-Top-Boxes in the Sub-Region, meaning that STBs manufactured in Nigeria can also be available for use in all the ECOWAS countries.

—  Jun 12, 2017 @ 17:45 GMT

Tags: Achieve Digital Switch broadcasting DSO ECOWAS Nigeria Federal Government NTA Republic of Niger