As Nigeria prepares to meet the June 2015 deadline for digital migration, in consonance with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) mandates, the federal government is planning to split the Nigerian Television Authority’s (NTA) operations into two completely independent parts.
A new signal transmission company will emerge from NTA, as part of the new licensing regime of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) which is expected to give digital migration a big push. This was made known at the NBC’s organised Digital Migration Summit in Lagos. According to Emeka Mba, director general, NBC, who also lamented that lack of funding constitutes a major drawback to meeting the deadline, said that the process of establishing a new transmitting company is underway, which would be finalised in June, ahead of the pilot scheme schedule billed for Jos, Plateau State. Mba pointed out that the migration process would require several billions of naira to be implemented.
According to him, “heavens will not fall if Nigeria fails to meet the June 2015 deadline, but there are grave social-economic consequences for the country.”
The NBC DG said a fundamental implication of not meeting the deadline would be signal interference from other countries that have would have migrated after the deadline elapses.He said Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, will not be competitive in the global digital arena, adding that new businesses expected to spring up as a result of digitalisation will not see the light of day. Speaking more on the new transmitting company, Mba said there is already a white paper on the digitisation process which stressed the use of NTA as signal carrier for transmission, adding that the NTA Act is in the process of been amended.
According to him, the new transmitting firm, that would emerge from NTA, will be achieved through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.
Speaking in the same vein, Edward Amana, chairman of the digiteam, informed that Expression of Interest (EoI) has been completed, with 19 companies emerging, while 9 companies have been pre-qualified, out of which only one will emerged as signal distributor.
“The 9 companies have six weeks to submit their technical and financial report,” he stated. On the issue of funding, Bello Tukur, deputy chairman, senate committee on information, said that there are concerns that the national assembly is not doing anything currently towards the appropriation of requisite funding to support the digital migration process.
He said, “the 2014 appropriation bill has not been signed into law and there are a lot of reason for the delay. We budget on the basis of what we have, the revenues we earn.”
However, Tukur said, “For the digitisation project, it depends on how you present your case to the house.
You can still make representations even if it means going through special funds.”
Ben Uzor Jr
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