Digital Migration

Nigeria: Govt. To Stop Subsidising Digital Broadcast Switch-Over Programme

According to a press report by the News Agency of Nigeria, the country's national government has declared it will be removing the current subsidy regime on the digital switch-over programme. According to a statement attributed to the Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, the government would seek to rapidly move into a position where "there will be no more subsidies, either for set-top boxes or signal carriage".
 
The Nigerian government will actively invite and involve private sector investment and financing to help move the digital broadcasting switch-over forward. The sector Minister said: "We have made tremendous progress in our efforts to get the much-needed funds for the DSO process, the process ought now to be entirely private sector driven and self-sufficient.
 
"As I speak, we are putting the finishing touches to a memo we plan to send to the Federal Executive Council, and we are very optimistic that our efforts will pay off soon. "The analogue to digital switch-over must not be delayed any longer than necessary," the minister said.