How corruption stalls Nigeria’s digital switch-over dream ten years after

Nigeria’s Digital Switch Over (DSO) process has been a subject of discussion even at the international level, principally because of its opaque nature.

Ripples Nigeria gathered authoritatively that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) may have beamed its searchlight on the process alleged to be a cesspit of corruption.

Recent happenings in the sector may have dampened the expectations of Nigerians since the announcement that the country will switch over to digital broadcast transmission by June 2015.

Director General, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mallam Is’haq Modibbo Kawu at the 68th General Assembly of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) in Abuja, agreed that the white paper on the DSO was tinkered with by the previous administration apparently for political reasons.

Kawu gave an insight into the rot he met on ground when he disclosed that a company was contracted and paid as conditional access provider in October, months before it was registered in Nigeria.

“What you could interrogate is how the process was done, if you have read the report of the Ad-hoc Committee from the House of Representatives, it said that ‘the company was paid in October but was not registered in Nigeria until December’ and that is what I inherited when I assumed office as DG,” Kawu lamented.

Quite a lot of investors were in a frenzy expecting the business and employment boom that was promised to come with the switch over in 2015, but the date failed. A new date of June 2017 was announced with firm assurance that all was being done to ensure the date was not missed. June 2017 became history and the expected DSO also became history.

However, experts wonder why achieving digital broadcast transmission had become such a hard nut to crack in Nigeria. Those asking questions are aware of the enormous opportunities presented by digital broadcasting for both operatives in the creative industries and manufacturers of set-top boxes and other digital transmission equipment.

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Issues surrounding digital transmission in Nigeria are such that many do not quite understand the delay. This is because initial discussions towards that began sometime in 2007 and between then and now, 2012, 2015 and 2017 have been set as take-off dates that failed. Irked by the delay, President Muhammadu Buhari announced in 2015 that he would give the desire the needed push. He made good his promise as Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed flagged off the pilot switch over project in Jos, Plateau State on April 30 last year.

On the heels of that, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in December 2016, commissioned the switch over project of Pinnacle Broadcast Limited, which covers Abuja. Following that, NBC DG Kawu, announced that Nigeria would adopt phased implementation of the switch over beginning with Enugu in the Southeast; Kaduna in the Northwest; Gombe in the Northeast; Kwara in the North Central; Delta in the South-South and Osun in the Southwest.

Despite these, broadcast engineer, Tony Dara, punctured efforts of the Federal Government when he alerted that whatever had been done so far in pushing for the DSO, was built on faulty foundations as equipment purchased for the project by one of the signal distributors were obsolete and out of production. He had argued severally that manufacturers of the transmitter had long ceased production of same range, making them unfit for the assignment they were being deployed for in Nigeria.

Dara’s alarm, which hinted of corruption in the process of acquisition of the equipment, also forced a petition by a lawyer, Ugochukwu Ezekiel, to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), urging investigation of the acquisition process as it was unimaginable that Nigeria would spend huge amounts to purchase equipment that were outdated and out of production.

The sum of N1.7 billion was released to the public sector signal distributor, Integrated Televison Service (ITS) for the procurement of the alleged outdated equipment.

The development has been a source of concern for the leadership of the Information Ministry which had reportedly picked a quarrel with Dara for his expository work on the details of the equipment so far purchased even as the loggerheads promises to set back the hand of the clock for Nigeria to achieve its DSO target.

Irked by the development, the House of Representatives recently empanelled an ad-hoc committee, chaired by Hon. Sunday Marshall Katung, to investigate the process of DSO in Nigeria. After its work, the committee presented before the House, on November 9, 2017, a 16-point recommendation that would help to clear the coast on DSO in Nigeria. Interestingly, all 16 recommendations were adopted by the House.

Among the recommendations was that “there should be an enactment of a new broadcasting law to encompass elements of digitization, define roles and responsibilities of the federal, state, local governments and the private sector”. This is a clear indication that Nigeria had embarked on the DSO project without a laws that defined the role of each layer of participation.

It also recommended that “there should be amendments to existing legislation to incorporate government policy recommendation on digital broadcasting in Nigeria and to legalize digital access fee and conditional access fee”. The House further recommended that “there should be an amendment to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act to strengthen its regulatory responsibility and develop a standard regulatory documentation for digital broadcasting”.

Other recommendations by the House of Representatives include that: “there should be an effective collaboration between the Ministry of Information and the NBC on the digital switch over process. The NBC and the ministry should develop the proposed National media Content Policy for the Digital TV era, covering a media content master plan including media content fund (MCF) to fund content production”. It said management of the fund should be proposed by the ministry with necessary legal backing.

According to the House, “the optimal management spectrum for the DSO should be ensured by the Ministry” adding that “it is equally important to confirm the total amount harvested from the sale of spectrum by the NBC and how the monies were expended”. There was a suggestion, by the House, that “Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) should be involved in the activities of Set Top Box manufacturers to ensure standard and avoid a situation where the country is turned into a dumping ground for substandard and obsolete equipment”.

It was however not silent on what should happen to already acquired but outdated equipment as it recommended that “issues surrounding the quality of equipment purchased by one of the licensed signal distributors as observed during oversight tour of the Committee, should further be investigated in order to assure Nigerians and ensure standard in line with global best practices”. Here, the House also wants that actual amount paid by the NBC for the equipment is ascertained and the process fully investigated against public procurement infractions observed in the contracting and purchasing process.

Pointing a way forward, the Reps recommended that “the NBC should collaborate with Nigcomsat on the best way to use its facilities for the switch over to enable the country conserve foreign exchange” just like it noted that “government should offer more incentives to Set Top Box manufacturers to encourage local production of STBs but not necessarily to provide subsidy”.

It also recommended that the “license issued to Set Top Box manufacturers who have failed, or neglected to establish manufacturing plants to engage unemployed youths and create other opportunities in the pursuit of local content, should be withdrawn forthwith in accordance with the terms of the license and consider licensing or replacing them with Nigerian companies which have capacity”.

The legislators also agreed that “the ministry and other key stakeholders should initiate effective public enlightenment programmes to create awareness on the process and expectations of the DSO”, as well as ensure that “ongoing phase/state implementation of the DSO strategy should be thoroughly supervised and monitored by the Ministry, (while) signal distributors and must exhibit capacity to cover at least 80 percent of an assigned state before being allocated or proceeding to another state”.

The House also wants NBC to coordinate activities of STB manufactures and content aggregators as well as collaborate with the ministry to ensure that regional collaborations on DSO timelines and final switch off dates are achieved.

It however warned that analogue broadcasting must not be switched off until 90 per cent of DSO coverage was achieved in the country.

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