Tag Archives: Ishaq Kawu

Gov’t pledges digital switch funds

The federal government is to release N30bn (US$83m) to fund the digital switchover (DSO) process in Nigeria.

Ishaq Kawu

Revealing the news during a briefing in Lagos, the director general of the National Broadcasting Commission, Ishaq Kawu, said the funds would be released in two batches of N15bn each. The government plans to recoup its investment from the proceeds of broadcast frequency auctions, he added.

“The commission has wrapped up the digital mapping of the country to ensure an effective DSO rollout,” Kawu said.

“For the past three months, the NBC has been in discussions with a South Korean company concerning the procurement of set-top boxes [STBs]. The firm has agreed to produce one million STBs in Nigeria and this will be a significant development for Nigeria in terms of being able to roll out in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Kano, which are the three major economic and population centres in Nigeria.

“There has been an issue of trans-border signal across West Africa, and therefore the NBC is rolling out in a manner that will not affect other countries. However, Nigeria is far ahead of its neighbouring countries in the roll-out of DSO.”

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