Nigeria can not meet up with June 30 digital crossover deadline

Unless there is a surprising turnaround of some kind, Nigeria is bound to miss the June 30 deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for a global cross-over from analogue television signals to digital transmission.

The process by which the analogue terrestrial television in Nigeria would be replaced with digital terrestrial television is known as a digital switchover or “analogue swith off”.

Digitisation will undoubtedly improve the quality of broadcasting and also enable the provision of additional entertainment services and versatility.

However, the crossover process has not taken off because the federal government has not released the N60 billion earmarked for the cost of the digital switchover (DSO).

According to Nigeriacommunicationsweek, the DSO process was initialized under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government, then passed on to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and finally current President Goodluck Jonathan. However, in all these years, the National Broadcasting Commision (NBC) has not received any funding to implement its programmes.

In light of this, without a firm commitment on release of funding for the project from the government would be unable to officially declare a date for the crossover process unlike has been done in many other African countries.