Contrary to the Federal Government’s projection that Nigerians would absorb about 40million set-top-boxes in the ongoing digitisation of the nation’s broadcast, Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, instead posited that over 60million boxes would be required.
This came as Chairman of Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), John Momoh, called on government at all levels to fund the nation’s Digital Switch Over (DSO) process for it to be successful.
El-Rufai said only some creative financial engineering would make the switch-on penetrate the nooks and crannies of the country.
Speaking at the weekend, during the switch-on of Kaduna State at Pinnacle Broadcast Station, in Kaduna, the Governor explained that it would be difficult for State Governments to sponsor bulk-purchase of set-top-boxes for their citizens at this period that they are still grappling with payment of salaries.
He therefore urged the operators, to seek funding from the financial institutions just like the telecoms companies.
“We have made some provision in the 2018 budget which has been signed into law. But what we have in the budget is considered as seed money; we will leverage on financial institutions so that we can buy more ßinstead of expecting our people to pay N2000.00 at once, they can pay about N200.00 every month for 12 months….”
