Speaking to State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council ( FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed said Nigeria would leave no stone unturned to beat the June 2017 deadline for migration from analogue to digital broadcast mode.
He cautioned that Nigeria might be cut off from the world, if it failed to meet up with the deadline by next year,adding that the project held the prospect of totally eliminating piracy from the system.
Mohammed reaffirmed the commitment of the federal government to meet the deadline of 2017 June and directed that the relevant ministries work together to achieve the deadline.
He pointed out that already the pilot scheme in Jos which was successfully deployed at the end of April is working very well and today those who are in possession of the set up boxes can view 15 channels with clarity in Jos.
Commenting on the feasibility of meeting the deadline in the face of hunger he said, “Yes Nigeria might be going through a very difficult times it doesn’t mean that we are going to be cut off from the rest of the world.”
“20 years ago Ethiopia had a famine that ravaged the whole country they have risen from the ashes of that famine to become one of the strongest economies of the world.
“ The fact that we are facing temporary problems does not mean that we are not going to be at pace with technology development all over the world,this is a global issue,it simply means that if we do not move from analogue to digital broadcasting we may not be able to even receive signals on your television.”
The minister assured that the government would assist to subsidize the boxes saying the digital migration will create a lot of job opportunities for Nigerians.
“ Look at the opportunities it offers our young men who are very talented to provide content to television stations,so it’s going to impact very largely on the broadcast industry, even piracy which has been a menace to us today.” Mohammed contended that with digitization it means that musicians and film makers can release their films or records direct on digital broadcast.
Such as video on demand and are now going to cut off the entire pirate network which has been a bane to the Nigeria’s creative industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment