The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said on
Thursday in Calabar that Nigeria was gradually moving toward
technological independence.
The minister stated this when he
inaugurated the ultra-modern Digital Set Top Box manufacturing plant,
owned by the Gospell Digital Technology and located at Calabar Export
Free Zone. The plant, regarded as one of the country’s largest
electronic manufacturing and assembly, is capable of manufacturing TV
decoders, prepaid electricity meter, smart phones. It is also capable of
manufacturing TV main boards, tablets computers and all kinds of
electronic devices.
The minister commended the investors and the
managers of the plant for exhibiting absolute confidence in the future
and economy prosperity of the country and in the Digital Switch Over
(DSO) programme. He challenged Gospell Digital Technology and other
manufacturers of Set Top Boxes/Decoders to produce a multi-purpose
television set that would help in transforming the TV experience of
Nigerians. “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. ”And please not for the rich, but for every
Nigerian home. “With that, we would have succeeded in the reduction of
the cost of access to television, information and education,” he said.
Mohammed hoped for an era in the country where viewers would be able to
access Nollywood releases, with or without the internet and with a
remote control that could convert the TV into a computer.
The
minister said that the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting
in the country was to give Nigerians total television viewing
experience, transform the life of the people and change TV viewing
forever. Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River, in his speech, expressed
satisfaction with the manufacturer for locating the plant in Calabar He
promised to buy 5000 Set Top Boxes and encouraged the investors to
engage people from the state in its employment as a way of supporting
the growth of the company.
The Group Managing Director of the
company, Godfrey Ohuabunwa, said the plant marked a new dawn in the
electronic and IT manufacturing sector in Nigeria He said in addition to
manufacturing of DTT and DTH boxes, the plant had three Surface Mount
Technology Automatic Chip Placement lines and four pneumatic Assembly
lines. According to him, the lines has the capacity of placing 2500, 00
components per hour.
He said the plant was also capable of
producing 20,000 Set Top Boxes per month, manufacture 100,000 printed
circuit boards per month and would generate not less than 500 job
opportunities. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Sen.
Suleiman Adokwe, Senators Shehu Sani, Samuel Anyanwu; Mao Ohuabunwa and
the Director-General, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Malam
Is’haq Modibo-Kawu attended the occasion. (NAN)