Minister Challenges Set Top Box Manufacturers: Give Us A Multi-Purpose TV

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, 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 spoke in Calabar on Thursday when he commissioned the
ultra-modern Digital Set Top Box manufacturing plant, owned by the
Gospell Digital Technology.

He 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.

”I have continued to reiterate, and the quality of the service we
launched goes to confirm, that our objective is not to just move
Nigerians from analogue to digital in a simple technical sense, but to
improve the viewing experience and give them increased variety of
channels and services.

”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.

”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 said.

The Minister hailed Gospell Digital Technology for building the
country’s largest electronic manufacturing and assembly plant, saying
the investors and the managers of the manufacturing plant have
exhibited absolute confidence, ”first in the future and economy
prosperity of our beloved country, and of course in the Digital Switch
Over (DSO) programme.

The plant, situated in the Calabar Export Free Trade Zone, has the
capacity to produce 2.4 million Set Top Boxes annually, and has
already provided 500 jobs.

”Going by its achievements in so short a time, the company’s vision
of becoming the leading manufacturer of household electronic video,
home entertainment and electrical appliances in Africa is very much
within its reach,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

Also present at the commissioning were the Executive Governor of Cross
River State, Prof. Ben Ayade; the Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Information, Senator Suleiman Adokwe; Senator Shehu Sani, Senator
Samuel Anyanwu; Senator Mao Ohuabunwa and the Director-General of the
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mala, Is’haq Modibo Kawu