Treasury delays stall digitisation
THE MINISTRY of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services says delays by the Treasury in availing money for the completion of the initial phase of digitisation that would see services being availed to digitally compliant areas in the country as well as paying contractors is stalling the process.
In an interview, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary Mr George Charamba said progress had been stalled by the Treasury’s delay in availing the funds that would see the ministry purchasing the initial set-top boxes from China and also paying their contractors that include Huawei.
Huawei is the major contractor for the digitisation programme that is aimed at seeing the country transforming from obsolete analogue television to digital satellite television and boost the arts industry in the process.
Mr Charamba said the Government required $17 million for the acquisition of set-top-boxes that would be used for digitisation.
“We are lagging behind in terms of paying our contractors. I know there has been sufficient noise made to the Ministry of Finance by Government officials starting with the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services itself, by the office of the Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, the entire Cabinet itself and more importantly the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on communications. I believe that the assurance we got from Treasury should be able to see us get some resources that should take us a little further,” he said.
Mr Charamba said Harare Metropolitan Province had been fully digitally equipped and compliant and was waiting for the set-top boxes.
“The biggest challenge now is not just to pay Huawei but to trigger the manufacturing of set-top-boxes. What it means is that once we have the set-top boxes we will be able to avail services to areas which are already digitally equipped and compliant, for instance Harare. It is ready but in the absence of set-top-boxes we won’t be able to roll out the programme.
“Once we get the money for the set-top-boxes then we get going. The trigger amount is about $1,8 million and once that is paid to the Chinese company the manufacturing starts for an initial number of 400 000 set-top boxes. We will then add more as we go into the future,” he said.