Nigeria needs 32m Set Top Boxes for digital switch over – NBC

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has said 32 million Set Top Boxes (STB) are required for the full switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting in Nigeria. The Director-General of NBC, Mr Ishaq Kawu disclosed this during a news conference on Digital Switch Over (DSO) held in Lagos last Friday. Kawu said the number was […]

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has said 32 million Set Top Boxes (STB) are required for the full switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting in Nigeria.

The Director-General of NBC, Mr Ishaq Kawu disclosed this during a news conference on Digital Switch Over (DSO) held in Lagos last Friday.

Kawu said the number was arrived at by dividing 191 million Nigerians by six, which represented the number of a household.

He said that the DSO process was a huge financial, technical and logistical challenge adding that switching on a huge country like Nigeria requires tremendous financial commitment.

He said that an STB costs 45 dollars and the commission had made a commitment of eight million units which would amount to $26 million.

Kawu said the unit price is a huge cost for Nigerians hence, the Federal Government subsidised it to N1,500 per STB.

After the switchover in Abuja last December offering 30 channels, he said a firm, The Outsource Company (TOC) was appointed to be the call centre managers for the switchover starting from Abuja.

“They commenced with appointing 30 call agents, but that was soon increased to 90. So far, a total of 745,480 STBs have been imported into the country; 566,478 have been delivered, while 485,409 have been sold and 332,095 were activated in Jos and Abuja,” he said.