DSO Not Backed By Law, Lacks Coherent Strategy, Says Lawyer

A United Kingdom-based Nigerian lawyer, Mr. Timothy E. Agbo, has described the country’s country’s digital switchover (DSO) programme as having neither a legal backing nor a coherent strategy. The programme, which began in 2012, has largely been marked by unsteady implementation, resulting in two missed deadlines and a halt in 2018.

However, it was on 30 April restarted in Lagos State and is expected to be completed in three years.

Agbo, who was a broadcaster before going to study law, is of the view that the completion rests on hope rather than expectation, as the programme is not backed by any law and its implementation is incoherent. He explained that countries that have completed the DSO programme had digital transition legislations in place.

These, he said, guided the programme in terms of financing and milestones. He noted that such legislations focused on industry-specific challenges and assisted in the delivery of endto-end digital capabilities—from strategy development, to technology implementation, to managed services.

“In the UK, they had the Transition Act, the legal framework enacted by parliament on which the programme was based. We have no such here. What we have is murky and means, for example, that content owners who wish to establish new television platforms are unaware of the licensing framework,” Agbo said.

He argued that the country lost an opportunity to draft a new body of regulations and digital licensing during last year’s review of the National Broadcasting Code.

“We wasted the opportunity because the review was rushed and the amendments failed to address the digital switchover programme. This has created uncertainty, which will affect investor confidence in the envisaged digital broadcasting ecosystem.

“It is unclear what the new digital platform or channel application and licensing processes are. What the Federal Government is harping on is the 2014 DSO Whitepaper, which is no law. “