The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has announced that it is targeting the middle of 2022 for the completion of the digital switchover (DSO) project.
Armstrong Idachaba, acting director-general of the commission, spoke on the DSO project in Abuja on Sunday.
“With the commitment of N9.4 billion by the federal government and the setting up of the ministerial taskforce by the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, there will be accelerated activities toward the delivery of the project,” he told NAN.
On the expansion of the programme to other states, Idachaba said: “We are going to Lagos very soon and before the third quarter of this year, we would have covered, at least, five more states.
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“The signal distributors are ready and, as we speak, they are setting up their infrastructure in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Kano, preparatory to the rollout.
“The box manufacturers are also working to ensure the availability of boxes needed.
“There is a big ambition to achieve this national assignment and the good news is that all the component players within the ecology are ready to go.
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“By the plans we have, by the middle of 2022, we would have completed the digital switchover in Nigeria.”
Idachaba gave credit to the minister for his vision in the implementation of the DSO project.
“We have as part of the members, a representative of the minister of finance,” he said
“I must put on record the huge support we have enjoyed from the minister in trying to push through the idea of making available the fund approved for the rollout.
“If I get the body language well, I think there are obvious signs that money will be released on time and the usual bottlenecks will not happen this time.”
The NBC boss said they had done a retrospective analysis of what had been done over time and identified the gaps.
He said there would be a faster and seamless rollout across states, having resolved all disputes that could lead to legal cog.
