The Nigerian Government announced that it has paid all debts owed to service providers under the Digital Switch Over (DSO) project.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this in Abuja at the 26th edition of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration Scorecard Series.
More details: The Minister said that Nigeria had missed the deadline for the DSO sometimes until the Buhari administration re-launched the whole digital transition process. He said:
- “The re-launch resulted in the pilot launch of the DSO in Jos in April 2016 and subsequent roll out in Abuja, Kwara, Kaduna, Enugu, Osun, Lagos, and Kano states.
- “Following a stall in the DSO process, the Federal Government resolved that for the transition to be sustainabale it should be a private-sector-driven exercise. The DSO must be self-sustaining and there will be no more subsidies either on Set Top Boxes or on the signal carriage.”
He added the Ministry collaborated with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Federal Executive Council to secure funds to pay the outstanding debts, adding that reforms embarked upon at the National Broadcasting Commission were in line with the government’s drive to provide job opportunities for Nigerians.
What you should know: The Digital Switch Over is the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting; The Federal Government commenced the implementation of the Whitepaper on the Digital Switch-Over (DSO) last year which will limit Pay-TV operators from self-carriage of their signals.
In case you missed it: Nairametrics reported last year that The Federal Government commenced the implementation of the Whitepaper on the Digital Switch-Over (DSO), which will limit Pay-TV operators from self-carriage of their signals.
FG revealed this at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Integrated Television Services (ITS) Ltd. and NTA-Star, according to NAN.
The ITS will be an FG-licensed signal distributor in the DSO project, to enable the transition from analogue to digital television broadcasting.
