By Emmanuel Elebeke

TWO months to the June 2017,  deadline for Nigeria’s migration from analogue to digital communication, the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC says the dateline remains sacrosanct but will not guarantee 100 per cent coverage of the country by June.

The Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Modibbo Kawu, who disclosed this while fielding questions on the DSO project, said he was optimistic that the June dateline would be met given the unprecedented   support of government commitment being made by the Commission to realize the goal.

Industry watchers have expressed worry that the continued delay in switching on the 36 states of the federation after the successful pilot scheme in Jos and Abuja in 2016, may translate into failure   on the part of Nigeria to meet the third dateline by June.

Kawu, insisted that the process might be slow but insisted that meeting the deadline is a task that must be accomplished, adding that all the country may not be covered on the slated date as the Commission had put a mechanism in place to continue the switch on of all the uncovered areas afterward.

According to the NBC boss, the diverse nature of Nigeria with its vast geographical area makes it difficult for the entire country to be covered on or before June, 2017, hence the plan to continue the switch over of all segments of the country left out on the stipulated dateline.

Kawo, was also quick to point out that forex scarcity in the economy poses fresh threat to the DSO but noted that the Commission had taken steps to address the challenge with appropriate stakeholders.

“The exchange regime is affecting the DSO but at the moment, we   are looking at possibility to address it and discussions are being held on that.”

With the successful completion of Abuja, he said that 1.2 million families had been provided access to watch free TV in the metropolis.

To spread the project to other parts of the country, the DG informed that the Commission had already commenced the installation of facilities for Digital Switch-Over   in Kaduna State, with a plan to extend same to Delta (South South), Osun (South West), Enugu (South East) and Kwara (North Central) and Gombe (North East).

The installation according to him, is being handled by   Pinnacle Communications ltd. and Integrated Television Service (ITS), the major signal distributor for the Digital Switch-Over (DSO) in the country, adding that the commission was working assiduously to roll out Digital Switch-Over in each state across the six geo-political zones simultaneously.

Kawu however, expressed optimism that Nigeria would meet the June 2017 switch-over dateline given the high level of political support from the Government and the commitment of the commission.

On accrued debts,   he disclosed that NBC had paid around N5 billion on settlement of debts, which comprised settlement of all debts arising from the contracts awarded in respect of the DSO and had also payments to the Set Top Boxes manufacturers.

He further assured that payment would soon commence to the DSO backbone group: Signal Distributors, ITS and Pinnacle Communications Ltd to ease possible hiccups in the journey towards actualizing the DSO in June 2017.