Minister welcomes support from China on digital switchover

folarin okunola

July 6, 2016 4:32 PM

The Minister said Nigeria is irrevocably committed to meeting the June 2017 Digital Switch Over deadline in order to protect broadcast signals from interference.

Minister of Information Lai Mohammed briefs the media on the town of Bama liberated from Boko Haram, during a news conference in Abuja, Nigeria December 8, 2015. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Media reports say Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, has welcomed China's decision to support Nigeria in its quest to actualize the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.

Mohammed was responding to comments by Ms. Zhao Yueqin, vice-president of StarTimes Group of China, who led a delegation of the company on a courtesy visit to the Minister in his office in Abuja on Monday, Nigerian CommunicationsWeek reports.

The Minister said Nigeria is irrevocably committed to meeting the June 2017 Digital Switch Over deadline in order to protect broadcast signals from interference and also to unlock the creative potentials of Nigerians in technology and content development.

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“The process of digitalization is unstoppable and irreversible; it’s not a matter of choice. If we do not follow the world to digitalise and meet the June 2017 target, it means that our telephones, televisions and radios will not be free from interference. As a matter of fact, planet earth today does not know the extent of the dividends of digitalization and how far it will go.

“Digitalization is going to affect the way we perceive and understand broadcasting. It will act as a catalyst to unleash the creative potentials of our youths. It will also provide the panacea to piracy. It will create so much possibility that will enable Africa leapfrog and join the next generation of technology,” Mohammed added.

According to another report, Mohammed also stressed the need to correct the trade imbalance between the two countries by encouraging Chinese investors to set up factories in labor-intensive sectors in Nigeria while canvassing for the removal of the 5% tax levied on agricultural products entering China from Nigeria.

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