Nation
NBC Assures On Digital Switch Over Completion
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) says the Digital Switch Over (DSO) project will be completed by middle of 2022 when the country will fully transit from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.
The Acting Director-General of the commission, Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, gave the assurance during an interview with newsmen in Abuja yesterday.
“With the commitment of N9.4 billion by the Federal Government and the setting up of the Ministerial Task Force by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, there will be accelerated activities toward the delivery of the project,” he said.
It would be recalled that the minister on February 23 announced the approval of the fund at the inauguration of the 14-member Ministerial Task Force to drive the DSO rollout in the remaining 31 states.
Idachaba said that with the launch of the pilot programme in Jos, Plateau in 2016, followed by Abuja and subsequently Kwara, Kaduna, Enugu and lastly Osogbo, in February 2018, the launch had now resumed in big cities.
“We are going to Lagos very soon and before the third quarter of this year, we would have covered, at least, five more states.
“The signal distributors are ready and, as we speak, they are setting up their infrastructure in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Kano, preparatory to the roll out.
“The box manufacturers are also working to ensure the availability of boxes needed.
“There is a big ambition to achieve this national assignment and the good news is that all the component players within the ecology are ready to go.
“By the plans we have, by the middle of 2022, we would have completed the digital switch over in Nigeria,’’ he said.
Idachaba gave credit to the minister for his vision in the implementation of the DSO project, stressing that the Task Force he set up was all encompassing.
“We have as part of the members, a representative of the Minister of Finance.
“I must put on record the huge support we have enjoyed from the minister in trying to push through the idea of making available the fund approved for the roll out.
“If I get the body language well, I think there are obvious signs that money will be released on time and the usual bottlenecks will not happen this time,’’ he said.
The NBC boss said they had done a retrospective analysis of what had been done over the time and identified the gaps.
He expressed the confidence that they would have a faster and seamless roll out across states, having resolved all disputes that could lead to legal cog.
Idachaba faulted the belief in certain quarters that the country missed two deadlines – June 2015 and July 2020 – owing to poor conception, mismanagement, corruption and bad leadership.
He explained that transiting from analogue to digital broadcasting all over the world is not a tea party because it is a highly demanding, tasking endeavor.
“No country has set a date and actualised it on the first set date.
“In the UK, they had to revise their entire transition strategy after they had pumped in millions of Pound Sterling.
“Also, in the USA, they had to reset the date over and over before they eventually transited,’’ he said.
He said that there were social implications for transition including affordability and accessibility as well as political, cultural considerations and financial constraints.
Specifically, he said the challenges in Nigeria had been lack of political will and financial constraints.
Idachaba said that since Mohammed came on board as minister in 2015, he mustered the political will and got the pilot scheme running in Jos followed by other states.
Broadcasters are to vacate analogue broadcasting to digital mode of transmission.
Rivers state Deputy Governor Professor Ngozi Nma Odu has commended “The Port Harcourt City One Love,”a Port Harcourt based humanitarian orgnisation For it’s commitment towards alleviating the sufferings of the poor and vulnerable in the society.
Professor Ngozi Nma Odu said this while speaking at this year’s edition of “operation feed the needy” a yearly outreach program of “The Port Harcourt City One Love ” in Port Harcourt.
The Deputy Governor said by feeding more than sixty thousands hungry people within the past six years, the Port Harcourt City One Love Movement has distinguished itself as a club that cares for the less privilege in the society.
She commended the , organization for listing eleven thousand persons to be fed in the current exercise.
Meanwhile The Port Harcourt City One Love has planned a permanent solution to the problem of feeding the poor in the state.
The leader of the group Mr Idaere Gogo Ogan who said this in an interview with newsmen during the distribution of food items to the poor and vulnerables in Port Harcourt said the organization is planning a permanent food kitchen where poor and vulnerable persons can work in anytime and get fed.
Idaere Gogo Ogan said more than sixty thousands poor and vulnerable persons across Port Harcourt City and environs have been fed since the inception of “The operation feed the needy” program six years ago,adding that so far sixty thousands poor and vulnerable persons have beneffited.
He described the group as a platform to promote friendship, brotherhood, community development empathy and feeding the less privilege and hungry people
“That’s what we are doing today here,so we started the exercise six years ago”.he said.
Ogan said the effort was a private sector driven initiative but added “it also involves people in Government because the platform does not recognize any division,we bring everybody together in unity , friendship and brotherhood”he said.
He said the effort will go along way in alleviating hunger especially following the prevailing hunger in the country.
According to him “you know the country is very tough, people are hungry people are starving, there is a whole lot of economic hardship,so for us, this is just our own way of reaching out, our own social contribution to what is very difficult”he said.
Over eleven thousand persons were fed in the just concluded exercise.
Areas of coverage include, Isaac Boro park, Port Harcourt prison/Macoba, Borokiri/Enugu waterside Bundu areas Waterlines and others.
Some of the beneficiaries including an 80 years old widow commended the movement for the annual programm and urged other organizations to emulate them
John Bibor,/Esuuk Oyet/Suotor Memoye /Jeremiah Hannah
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