The Director-General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Ishaq Modibbo- Kawu, has said the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting in the country is slow due to the cost of procuring the equipment needed.
He said this during the launch of the digital switchover platform in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
According to him, the switchover was being done in phases in line with the plans of the federal government to ensure every household in the country enjoyed television viewing with advanced broadcast technologies
He urged Nigerians in other parts of the country where the digital switchover platform had not been launched to be patient with the NBC; stressing that the commission was poised to ensure the country fully adopted and adapted digital technologies in broadcasting.
He said: “Now we are going to six states in each of the geo-political zones – Kwara in the North-Central, Osun in the South-West, Gombe in the North-East, Kaduna in the North-West, Enugu in the South-East and Delta in the South-South.
“We are going to have to do it in phases because digital switchover is a major challenge in terms of technology, in terms of logistics and the finance,
“The 650,000 boxes that we procured for the first phase cost us $26m, that’s a huge amount of money, considering that you are having about 35m television homes in Nigeria with each box [costing] about $45 per box.
“It’s a very expensive process and that’s why we are doing it in the phased manner and we are giving a bouquet of 30 programmes which will continue to expand as more and more producers of television content come on stream.”
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