FG Says Broadcast Digitalization Will Create Jobs

Tobi Soniyi in Abuja

The Federal Government has said that migration from analogue to digital broadcasting will create more jobs for the unemployed youths in the country.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammad, said this on Wednesday while briefing newsmen after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

When asked why the council was preoccupied with discussion of migration from analogue to digital at a time when Nigerians are reeling under hard economic conditions, Mohammed said that the hardship was temporary and that government would not be shut down.

Apart from creating jobs, he said that migrating from analogue to digital broadcasting would ‎address the problem of piracy.

According to him, the council considered a memo on the migration in the face of the International Communication Union (ITU)’s June 2017 deadline for all countries in the world to digitalize.

Mohammed said that digitalization would also help in dealing with the menace of piracy and encourage the creative industry to prosper.

He said: “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 set up boxes can view 15 channels with clarity in Jos and 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.”

Asked why the council chose to focus on digitalization at the face of hunger and deprivations in the land, the minister said “Yes, Nigeria might be going through a very difficult times, it doesn’t mean that we are going to be cut off from the rest of the world.

“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 your television.

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