Local automaker, FG partner with Chinese investors for $1 billion ICT investment

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October 25, 2016 10:17 AM

The plan to invest the funds includes a $400 million investment in Nigeria's Digital Switch Over (DSO) project by 2017.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo meets with China's Liu Baoju in Abuja

On Monday, October 24, 2016, in the nation's capital, Abuja, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo received a group of Chinese investors led by Liu Baoju, a deputy minister in China's Communist Party from Shandong Province.

Baoju is also the chairman of the Shandong Broadcasting Group, the world's largest TV operator.

A ThisDay report says the plan to invest the funds include a $400 million investment in Nigeria's Digital Switch Over (DSO) project by 2017 and an additional $600 million which will make its way to other sectors of the economy.

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Of the $400 million, $300 million will cover a foreign investment credit facility that will kickstart, and sustain local production. It will also help supply five to eight million Set-Top boxes to complement the government's DSO project for which the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) taking charge.

The $100 million left will serve as a financial foreign investment and used to establish a Direct-To-Home (DTH) Digital BING Television Station in each state of the federation.

Ventures Africa reports that negotiations for another $600 million investment are already underway. The government is also working with strategic Chinese parties to instal CCTV cameras all over the country as well as cloud computing solutions and other IT applications for government agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

The investments are expected to boost national security and tackle problems like insurgency, militancy and other forms of state crimes.

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