By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor

ABUJA—Many months after investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the immediate past Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Mr. Emeka Mbah, has cleared the air on the N15 billion the commission lodged with the Zenith Bank as collateral for the supply of set-top boxes for the commencement of digital broadcasting in the country.

Mba, who had been reporting to EFCC operatives since the beginning of this year, told Vanguard in Abuja that there was no attempt whatsoever to hide N15 billion for either himself or any member of the dissolved board of NBC.

According to Mba, the decision to set aside the N15 billion out of the N34 billion, for which the commission sold its radio spectrum to MTN, was to convince the 13 set-top box contractors to go ahead with the production and supply of the tools so as not to derail the deadline set by the International Telecommuni-cations Union, ITU.

Mba said contrary to allegations that the money was hidden away by him, the truth remained that the management and board of NBC entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with Zenith Bank to keep the money and disburse to the set-top box contractors to deliver the 1.5 million pieces ordered by the commission.

He said: “We could not manufacture the over 10 million set-top boxes, which the Federal Government ordered, and we had to engage the 13 companies to do that and supply.

“We allocated the 1.5 million initially ordered among the five companies and asked Zenith to guarantee and pay the com-panies as they make supply.”