StarTimes trumpets $220m Nigeria spend

China-based StarTimes has invested more than US$220m into Nigeria since launching in the country in 2010, according to the pay TV operator’s MD.

Speaking at the recent Chinese Film Week in Abuja, David Zhang highlighted StarTimes’ achievements in the Nigerian market to date. “So far, we have invested a total of US$220m in Nigeria, developed a network of nearly 3,000 distributors in the country [and accumulated] around four million subscribers,” he said.

“We are actively involved in corporate social responsibility and have paid a total of US$25m in tax, recruited more than 1,000 local staff, 97% of whom are Nigerians, and indirectly employed tens of thousands of people in various fields such as marketing, technology, accounting, logistics and customer services.

“We have made our due contributions to the popularisation of digital TV and economic development in Nigeria.

Noting the company’s investment in sports content, Zhang added: “We keep strengthening our content platform. We have done huge investment on football content. Millions of Nigerian households enjoyed all 64 matches of the World Cup live broadcasts a few months ago through our DTV platform or OTT platform for only N1,300.”

Zhang also said the company’s plan to provide 10,000 African villages with access to digital television was already being implemented in 1,000 locations, translating to 20,000 Nigerian households.

tagged in: David Zhang, StarTimes