DSO will create one million jobs in three years, says Mohammed

MINISTER of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the new digital switch over ( DSO) will generate at least one million jobs in three years.

Mohammed, who stated this, yesterday, while addressing stakeholders in broadcast industry in Lagos, directed the National Broadcasting Commission ( NBC) to set up special units that would report to his office on the implementation of the DSO reforms.

He also directed GOTV and Startimes to stop self- carriage by the end of June this year, which he said, was part of efforts to make the DSO proposition viable.

According to him: “The Federal Ministry of Information and Culture considers the DSO as one of its priority projects because of its potential to create jobs, bring governance closer to the people through better access to information, thus deepening democracy, bring Internet to millions of homes and also provide quality programming, especially those produced locally, to Nigeria’s estimated 24 million television households, with high fidelity pictures and sound.”

He said the programme had gone live in the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT) and also launched in Jos, Plateau State, on April 30, 2016.

“Since then, we have gone live in Kwara, Kaduna, Enugu and Osun states. With the recent approval by the Federal Executive Council ( FEC) of outstanding payments to key stakeholders in the DSO project, we are moving rapidly to cover the remaining 31 states.

“We are kick- starting the new roll- out in Lagos State on April 29, 2021, Kano on June 3, 2021 and Rivers on July 8. We will then follow up with Yobe State on July 15 and Gombe State on August 12,” he said.

He said that the DSO was about stimulating local content and empowering platform owners, adding: “It’s about creating jobs for our teeming population, especially the very creative youth population. As I have said at many fora, this project is capable of generating one million jobs in three years.

“The manufacturing of set top boxes or decoders alone is capable of creating between 40 and 50 thousand jobs. TV production can create 200,000 jobs. Film production can generate 350 to 400,000 jobs.”