The Federal Government has challenged the manufacturers of Set Top Boxes/Decoders in the country to produce a multi-purpose television set that will help in transforming the TV experience of Nigerians.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, spoke in Calabar on Thursday when he commissioned the Digital Set Top Box manufacturing plant, owned by the Gospell Digital Technology.
The minister said the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting in the country is aimed at giving Nigerians a total television viewing experience that will transform their lives and change TV viewing forever.
”The average home today – in order to have access to the various types of entertainment – will require a television, a Set Top Box and a VCD/DVD player. This era is about to end. I am challenging the industry to move to one device in the home – the television. Give us a TV with a built-in decoder and the requisite middle-ware inside it, being able to access Nollywood releases with or without the internet, and with a remote control that can convert the TV into a computer” the minister said.
”And please not for the rich, but for every Nigerian home. With that
we will have succeeded in the reduction of the cost of access to
television, information and education,” he added.
Speaking earlier, the group managing director, Gospell Digital Technology, Sir Godfrey Ohuabunwa said the company faced some challenges of government bottlenecks and issues of finance in its journey.
“It is no more news how exorbitant it is to source for funds from financial institutions anywhere in this country and I am sure every entrepreneur here will attest to this fact but more worrisome is the attitude of certain government agencies in implementing government policies” he lamented.
The GMD further said the company will create between 300-500 jobs within the next few years.
The plant, situated in the Calabar Export Free Trade Zone, has the capacity to produce 2.4 million Set Top Boxes annually according to Ohuabunwa.
