By Stanley Nkwazema
It has not been an easy journey for Nigeria leading to the Digital Switch On for Terrestrial television which started in 2008 when Nigeria signed up to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) protocol, literally meaning that we are bound to transit from Analogue broadcasting to digital in line with the current global trend.
Interestingly, before the Jos and Abuja switch over which happened on the 22nd December 2016, several efforts were made to realise the migration without success. Nigeria had to move the date from 2015 to June 2017, but with the trend and lack of commitment on the part of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) it will be a miracle if the date is realised.
The Federal Government in addition to Signal Distribution also identified Set Top Boxes (STB) as some of the most critical components of the transition even as 30 million STBs were estimated to be needed for the Nigerian market. In its bid to encourage indigenous companies, create local jobs the NBC licensed 13 indigenous firms to locally manufacture STB in the country after each paid N50 million totalling N650 million.
In the Government white paper 10 million of the boxes were to be subsidised for identified household which for now only 1.2 million are already subsidised under the first phase which leaves a huge gap of 8.8 million and 28,8 million STBS estimated early for the success of DSO.
The Jos launch took place in April 2016 while the Vice President Prof, Yemi Osibanjo anchored the Abuja launch in December.
It would be recalled that though the Abuja launch was a huge success despite initial hiccups associated with such projects due largely to the limited coverage area by the signal distributor Pinnacle and the lack of public education on the activation of the box. It was confirmed that the numbers on the boxes were clearly ignored and households are now finding it difficult to get through to the signal distributor.
Again it is worthy to note that while the activation and lack of signal is being bandied as an untenable excuse, the STBs have come out to explain that their job was to produce and hand over to the NBCs while CCNL and FreeTv handle the activation
It is indeed very clear that the Federal Government through the Abuja launch has shown commitment through the support and attention by the Minister of Information and Culture to the digitisation with a firm resolve and determination to meet the June 2017 deadline.
The hardwork of the Set Top Box Manufacturers and all stakeholders on the whole project may be an exercise in futility if the companies continue working on credit. The NBC has failed to release the N10 billion STB Guarantee fund hitherto held by the EFCC. The EFCC released the fund after it was understand that it was clearly meant to fast track the payment of the subsidy to the manufacturers who has been working without any money being paid so far.
Before the Jos launch last April and owing to the urgency and need to meet the launch date the NBC had authorised manufacturers to import STBs for that purpose. Again to encourage the STB manufacturers overcome the common fears of lack of patronage a situation that hampered previous attempts, the Broadcast organisation decide to provide trade comfort to the manufacturers by way of Bank Guarantees to enable them manufacture and import. Interestingly 850,000 have so far been produced and 450,000 delivered to Jos and Abuja while 400,000 are warehoused by the manufacturers for delivery.
Ironically, it is no longer news that while the NBC is sitting on over $150 million realised from the sale of the spectrum in 2015 and also the N10 billion released by the EFCC for the bank Guarantee, no STB manufacturer has received any payments for the production and delivery nor has the NBC honoured its bank Guarantee to the Manufacturers despite the fact that the federal Government has released the funds against the guarantee issued to manufacturers by the banks.
The DSO is a laudable project to enable Nigeria be at par with other members of the ITU, however, the dateline may be a mirage if the NBC fails to fulfil its payment obligations for the STBs ordered and manufactured while the NBC and the Digiteam should adopt a national rollout timetable for proper planning process.
The proper roll out timetable will no doubt enable state Governments and stakeholders including signal distributors broadcast stations, content aggregators and the STBs to key in and plan accordingly. The NBC needs to mandate the setting up of at least 2 in country Digital TV testing centres which will be approved by Standards Organisation of Nigeria SON .
The Local Governments areas who had earlier indicated interest should also key in for the remaining 8.8 million STBs proposed for subsidy since the boxes will be an added IGR for the states.
More worrisome is the fact that the NBC has yet set a cutoff date for the subsidy so that any subsequent purchase will be based on market price even as the manufacturers would want necessary waivers on components for importation granted special foreign exchange window provided by the CBN for the importation of the components.
While showing its willingness to make the transition seamless, the STB manufacturers requires several components and parts that are made by different vendors and OEMs. Some of the part s especially the Chipset which is the core of the STB needs a lead timeline of between 12 to 16 weeks from the order to delivery. The Manufacturer would need to still integrate and test before shipping out
One thing that is lacking though is an aggressive enlightenment by the NBC. At the initial stage Government stands to create over 6500 jobs through the manufacturers in the initial phase while Nigeria will also be the first country in West and Central Africa to create Surface Mount Technology (SMT) and chipset industry.
There will also be benefit in terms of technology transfer in terms of SMT m chipset, design and PCB implementations which opens up ancillary manufacturing opportunities for other electronic devices and possible creation of AAA batteries manufacturing opportunities due to the massive quantities of batteries needed by the STB remote control.
On funding for the projects, the Federal Government had last year approved the sale of spectrum to kick-start the process which was about 25 percent of the sales, therefore it may not be out of place if Government raises more funds from the sale of the remaining or part of the 75 percent of the spectrum while pursuing the option of local and the state Governments financing the purchase of the STBs should be pursued with more interest.
If the Federal Government delays further, the 2017 switch off date will certainly be impossible and if plans by neighbouring countries to roll out will further put Nigeria in a very tight corner sand serious risk due to the jamming of stations and no signal associated with such realities based on the fact that it is an ITU regulated protocol.
