By  Princewill Ekwujuru
Otunba Ayodeji Osibogun is the Chairman of WTS Nigeria, the  broadcast equipment company that won the contract for the migration of NTA from Standard Definition to High Definition. He spoke with newsmen on the OB vans supplied by the company to NTA and other issues. Excerpts

Tell us about yourself?

My name is Otunba Ayodeji Osibogun. I am the Chairman of WTS Broadcast Nigeria Limited. I have been in the broadcast equipment business for several years as a reseller and an agent to re-sellers. But over the past few years, the growth of broadcasting in Nigeria became so massive that some of us began to think how we can add more value to the local environment and make the best equipment and after sales service platforms available in Nigeria.

Otunba Ayodeji Osibogun

Then, I was managing a company called Creazioni Nigeria Limited. Having travelled the world all around, I thought it was best for us to partner with a company that has been a success case in handling the sales and service of broadcast equipment in the advanced world and bring the same services in this country.

The result was a partnership between Crezzioni and a company based in the United Kingdom known as Well Trade Services Limited or WTS for short. We conducted a research that revealed to us the gaps in broadcast equipment supply and servicing in the African market and thus decided to work together to open an office in Nigeria that would be an access point for the rest of the African market.

So essentially, WTS Broadcast is a company dealing with professional broadcast and video equipment. WTS is a professional bulk shipment company. We buy, supply, install and service video equipment all over the world. We are also Sony UK partners as well as so many other manufacturers of professional broadcast equipment.

So what makes you believe the Nigerian market is large enough for this kind of business?

Like I said earlier, we conducted a research that gave a clear insight into the Nigerian market and the values we can add. Take for instance, the issue of equipment procurement. Before now, most Nigerian broadcast houses and other institutions needing such services would have to go through the rigours of importation and bringing experts that would install such equipment. This throws up many other challenges.

The first is the cost of doing al these. By the time the company goes through the importation and installation procedures, they would have spent so much money. Even then, there is also the challenge of training as experts would also flown in from abroad or the employees here are sent on oversees training. This is usually at huge costs. Then again, when there is a breakdown of these equipment, bringing these experts back for repairs takes long.

So we are saying, instead of sourcing these from other lands, why not have all these here? Why not stock these equipment here? Why not conduct the training of broadcast engineers here? Why not have a mechanism that would enable quick and immediate response to mal-functioning equipment? And that is why we founded WTS Nigeria.

So far, how successful has your Nigerian operations been?

We have been able to attract very big clients including NTA where we are undertaking the job to migrate them from Standard Definition to High Definition with the support of the manufacturers. We sourced equipment from Sony, from Laos, from Everts, Cannon and others.

We selected what we are sure are the best available in the market to allow our customer develop and possess the capacity for productions, not just in the area of sports but also all other productions in-house and in remote locations. What we are providing NTA is capable of sustaining them over the next decade.

You said you have selected the best manufacturers for the NTA transaction, yet there was  controversy over the contract. Can you throw more light on this transaction?

First of all let me say that Nigerians misunderstood the entire thing. I read in newspapers last year that the business is between WTS and Sony. But when the OB vans come in, you will understand that there were a lot of other manufacturers that supplied equipment that went into the NTA transaction. I have told you we are also partners with other manufacturers and we have strong relationships with them.

When we came here, we sat down with NTA and together we identified what they need in terms of equipment and infrastructure. We looked at long term benefits for the Nigerian broadcast industry and agreed to supply and build equipment that will be relevant not just in the next year or two but also in the next 10 years at the very least.

We identified several need areas and advised on the best manufacturers for these different aspects of the broadcast infrastructure. We sourced material from companies in Canada, Germany, France and the UK. For instance we contracted a German company called Laos for the audio console because we know they are the best. That was how we approached the transaction. Let me state here that our approach to business is different. We go to great lengths to try and identify the real challenges our customers are facing and provide solutions for them.

Nigerians were not really questioning the integrity of WTS as much as they were questioning the integrity of the contract with NTA. Can you throw more light on this?

When we got involved in the NTA contract at the beginning of this year, we sat down with NTA to understand precisely what their challenges were and what they want to achieve. We then presented them with what we feel was the best offer especially as it affects the cost of what we will be doing for them.

So what is the status of this transaction? I understand the contract was meant for the FIFA Under 17 World Cup hosted by Nigeria last year?

Well that was what I understand NTA was working on at the time. But  our contract was clearly not designed for the FIFA World Cup alone. Recall that Nigeria has a deadline of 2012 for broadcast houses here to migrate from Standard Definition to High Definition? Our contract was much more tailored towards moving NTA broadcast signals to High Definition than it was for the last World Cup tournament.

Of course you know AIT was eventually made the host broadcaster of the tournament and that did not affect our transaction,. Meaning that we were not contracted just for the FIFA tournament alone but to migrate NTA to High Definition and improve the performance of the television station that is one very critical asset for national mobilisation in Nigeria.

So when are you delivering on this contract or has NTA taken delivery?

Well we are set to deliver these equipment to NTA latest by the second week of December. We have worked very hard to make sure that these equipment are brought in.

At the moment, we have organised several training programmes for NTA engineers here and abroad so that they would have a “hands-on” knowledge of the equipment and know how to handle them for best results when we eventually deliver and install them. What we have done with the NTA deal is to prove that we have the interest of Nigerian broadcasting at heart and I am going to give details.