Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has revealed that the country may not meet the June 15 deadline for the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting following the non-release of the NGN65 billion needed for successful migration.
Director General of the commission, Mr. Emeka Mba said the Nigerian government has not released any money for the migration.
Mba said the sum include the cost of subsidy for some homes in Nigeria to provide them with setup boxes and cost of buying back analogue transmitters from all the operators, cost of publicity, roll-out obligations and some subsidy for signal distributors to make sure they meet up with the roll-out time, funds for content and consultants.
“We will continue to dialogue with government on how to secure funding, we are trying to use Digital Dividends as collateral to raise money for government in order for the commission to use part of the money to implement the process. We have commissioned a team of international spectrum experts to value the cost of the Digital Dividend Spectrum and the valuation points to the fact that government can make in excess, what it will spend,” he said.
