Not again! Nigeria won’t miss another deadline of digital migration, says FG

The federal government has directed relevant agencies to ensure that Nigeria meets the June 2017 deadline for migration from analogue to digital broadcasting.

Nigeria has missed the digital switchover deadline twice – first in June 2012 and later in June 2015 – mainly because of inadequate funds.

In order to prevent the situation from happening again, Nigeria’s migration from analogue to digital broadcasting was the sole issue discussed at Wednesday’s federal executive council meeting.

According to Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, President Muhammadu Buhari ‎said the migration, which is line with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), was essential to enable Nigerians continue to receive television signals after the deadline.

Mohammed said the pilot migration‎ was carried out in Jos, Plateau state, in April, using special set-up boxes to provide free digital signals of 15 broadcast stations, had proved successful.

“Already the pilot scheme in Jos, which was successfully deployed at the end of April is working very well, and today those who are in possession of our setup boxes can view 15 channels with clarity in Jos,” he said.

“The highlights of today’s council meeting is that council reaffirmed its support for us to meet the deadline of 2017 June and directed that the relevant ministries work together to achieve these deadline.”

‎Mohammed said the current economic challenges would not stop the country from achieving the target.

“Nigeria might be going through a very difficult time it doesn’t mean that we are going to be cut off from the rest of the world,” he said.

“Twenty years ago Ethiopia had a famine that ravaged the whole country they have risen from the ashes of that famine to become one of the strongest economies of the world. The fact that we are facing temporary problems does not mean that we are not going to be at pace with technology development all over the world, this is a global issue, it simply means that if we do not move from analogue to digital broadcasting we may not be able to even receive signals on our television.”