FG Stops Subsidy On Digital Switchover

The Federal Government says “there will be no more subsidies, either for set-top boxes or Signal carriage” as it plans to resume the rollout of Digital Switchover, a transition from analogue to digital television broadcasting.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja at a “Digiteam” meeting to foster dialogue among the various stakeholders in the DSO architecture.
Mohammed stressed that while the government is looking for money to pay outstanding debts and restart the DSO roll out, the process will be fully private sector driven and self-sustaining.
“On our part, we have made tremendous progress in our efforts to get the much-needed funds for the DSO process, in particular, to pay outstanding debts that will ginger stakeholders to resume the rollout and bring the massive benefits of the DSO to Nigerians.
“As I speak, we are putting finishing touches to a memo we plan to send to the Federal Executive Council as part of our relentless efforts to secure the funds to restart the process, and we are very optimistic that our efforts will pay off soon.
“The Analogue to Digital Switch Over must not be delayed any longer than absolutely necessary,” he said.
Following the successful launch of the DSO in April, 2016, in Jos, Plateau State, the Federal Government announced the reduction of price of set-top boxes from the official N10,000 to N1,500 in order to get it across to all Nigerians.
About 200,000 boxes were also given out for the pilot phase free of charge.
Similarly, the Plateau State Government also announced subsidy plans for its citizens and promised to distribute 300,000 boxes to them.
Mohammed noted that moving ahead with the DSO was critical to the post-Covid-19 prosperity of the creative industry and that was why the government has taken it as a priority.
He recalled the enthusiasm that greeted the launch of the DSO in Jos, noting that the process was stalled due to many factors but mainly lack of funds.