By Emmanuel Elebeke

Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Mr. Modibo  Kawu has promised that content will be made  a priority  in the digital broadcasting project in the country because it holds the key to success in the digital era.

This is as the commission said it has resolved to use the 2016 African edition of Africast to expose Nigeria and indeed, the entire continent to digital broadcasting opportunities.

The Director General of the Commission, disclosed this in Abuja, while fielding questions on NBC’s plan for 2016 Africast.

With the theme:  Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting: Imperative for Financing Quality Content,  he stated that the bi-annual conference will focus on digital broadcasting, which is expected to open  a major aperture to the way Nigerians view television.

“We are on the course of history in terms of digital transition in Nigeria. Africast will be 20 years old this year. It started in 1996 as an international conference for African broadcasters, it has become major industry hub in the global calendar. It has evolved as investors’ platform and market place of ideas and material.

“We are talking now about digital broadcasting. We are opening a major aperture to the way Nigerians view television.

“Talking about the possibilities, we are talking about youths who are educated in different skills and knowledge. Our economy will open up with digital broadcasting.

“One of the possibilities is that, we are going to have 70 per cent of content. So, we are going to have opportunity for young people to be part of the industry that will be monumental to  global history. The Nigerian film industry is about 3rd  in the world and we have not reached full potential in that area.”

“Apart from changing the face of broadcasting, for us in Nigeria, it has a strategic edge. Our country is a very young country.   So, digital broadcasting will offer opportunities. That is why, what we are doing for Africast this year is very significant for the future. With it, we hope Africa will protect its place in the global arena,” he added.

Africast is a bi-annual conference for all African countries that brings together broadcast enterprearneurs, broadcast personnel and people related to the industry from across the continent, who came in to be part an African market place of ideas.