Nigerian government has launched the television Digital Switch Over (DSO) on Thursday, 22 December 2016 in the Federal Capital territory, Abuja.
The event attracted dignitaries from across the length and breadth of the country who could not wait to witness the long-awaited switch-over.
Speaking at the occasion, President Muhammadu Buhari said that the significance of the “event cannot be lost on the world as the digital switchover becomes a reality in the capital city of Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation.”
He stated that “even if only for the huge local and international opportunities for Broadcast, media, ICT, entertainment and education , we are right to say that we stand at the threshold of exciting times for job creation, entertainment and in general local and international commerce.”
President Buhari said that “local industry is already experiencing a boost from the new vista in digital economy, with several indigenous companies now manufacturing Set-Top-Boxes”.
He noted that “many of the set-top-boxes we are using for this Abuja switch-over are produced in Nigeria.”
Also speaking at the occasion, an elated Minister of Information & Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that “the objective is not just to move customers and Nigerians from analogue to digital in a simple technical sense, but to ensure a total overhaul of the whole TV watching experience and the economy around it”.
He assured that “we are expecting to help diversify our economy by properly exploiting our great talent and creative human and natural resources, which we strongly believe are second to none in Africa.”
He went ahead to mention a number of initiatives that the government is focusing on in order to achieve a credible and effective development of TV and Production industries, and to successfully develop the digital economy as follows:
- The Consumer Proposition that is all encompassing which most Nigerians have never had access to – 30 free digital channels
- Free and easy access to Government and Public information through a touch of the remote control.
- Current Affairs and News available through the middleware on the boxes.
- A world class Electronic Program Guide that will make Television viewing an unbeatable experience
- Creating tens of thousands of jobs through Technical, Production and Manufacturing opportunities
He highlighted the opportunity of creating tens of thousands of jobs as the government engages engineers, technicians, retailers, distributors and marketers, among others.
“The increase in Free-To-Air channels and the separation of transmission from content aggregation will spur an increase in TV production activities, as the Channels will now be able to focus on their TV shows and harness the variety of human and creative skills to compete to become the most watched channel,” Lai Mohammed noted.