Sometime ago, Chinese president Xi Jinping promised that China would implement access to satellite TV for 10,000 villages across Africa. This was to be one of the major programmes to boost cooperation between China and Africa.
Out of the 10,000 villages, Nigeria was given 1,000 and StarTimes has been handed the contract for this project, not just for Nigeria but also across the continent.
Early signs of fulfillment of this promise were seen before the launch of the project in Abuja, the nation’s capital. Chinese technicians and their local partners had visited Kpaduma project, an underdeveloped rural community at the edge of Abuja.
The community is one of the 1,000 villages carefully selected to benefit from a China-aid programme.
StarTimes, a Chinese firm which offers direct-to-home pay TV services, introduced its digital television service to Kpaduma, to flag off the enormous project across Nigeria.
The project acts on one of the resolutions of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2015, in which the Chinese government pledged to provide satellite television for 10,000 African villages.
Under the project, each of the 1,000 chosen villages in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, will receive two sets of solar-powered projector television systems and one set of solar 32-inch digital television integrated terminal system.
Altogether, 20,000 households in rural Nigeria will benefit from the project. In each village, 20 recipient families with television will be provided with 20 sets of direct broadcast satellite terminal system free of charge.
A projector television system will also be provided to each of the 1,000 villages, for viewers to publicly watch at least 21 satellite channels free of charge.
“For us at StarTimes, it makes us truly happy as a company and a people to be able to work together successfully with both the Chinese and Nigerian government, and to put long lasting smiles on the faces the children and adults that would benefit from the exposure they get from the access to satellite TV,” saidJustin Zhang, CEO, StarTimes Nigeria.
Zhang said the implementation of the project will create more jobs, as Nigerians across the 1,000 selected villages have been trained on how to install, recharge and operate the satellite television system
For decades, residents of Kpaduma have only been familiar with analogue TV, lacking the opportunity to watch some of the exciting satellite television channels enjoyed by people in the towns and cities across Nigeria. When the innovative project came to their community with Chinese and Nigerian officials in attendance, ecstatic locals in Kpaduma thronged the village square.
Yusuf Dio, prince of Kpaduma and a beneficiary of the direct broadcast satellite terminal system, described the innovative project as “the talk of the town.”
The satellite television provides the opportunity for locals to watch digital television programs with both local and international contents.
Every evening, up to 20 locals with no television electricity gather at Dio’s house to watch the digital television programs together with his family.
“We are very happy to have this (digital television) in our household. It has brought so much joy and pleasure to my family,” Dio said.
As a pioneer digital terrestrial television provider in Nigeria, StarTimes has been able to disseminate digital terrestrial television in at least 80 cities across the West African country in nine years.
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony for the project in Kpaduma, Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, said the implementation complements the efforts of the Nigerian government to “democratise access to information and entertainment through the Digital Switch Over (DSO) for television which has now been rolled out in several states and the Federal Capital Territory.”
The minister commended the Chinese government for the project which, he said, will strengthen the already cordial China-Nigeria relations.
In his remarks, Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian, reaffirmed the commitment of China to implementing the outcome of FOCAC, saying China would work closely with Nigeria to ensure people’s access to information through television and satellite technology.
He said the implementation of the digital television project would also go a long way in delivering the China-Africa cooperation’s goal of connectivity, especially people-to-people connectivity, one of the core objectives of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.
ODINAKA ANUDU
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