Broadcasting
Nigeria’s DSO: Fresh Missteps Loom
By Dominic Omuedi
Heartwarming, it was for me, to read reports of the press conference addressed on Tuesday by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, on the country’s Digital Switchover (DSO) process, which seemed to have been interred under the rubble of poor conception, mismanagement and corruption.
The cheer brought by the government’s announced intention to reboot the process, positive as appears, has shown nothing beyond the fact that the DSO process is not completely forgotten. No more. No less.
At the press conference, Mohammed unveiled a 13-member Ministerial Task Force to take charge of the DSO process which, for years, has proceeded in staccato fashion and left the country trailing many others, including in Africa.
Members of the task force, to be chaired by Mohammed, include Armstrong Idachaba, Joe Mutah of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture (Secretary), Dr Armstrong Idachaba, acting Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC); Olusegun Yakubu of Pinnacle Communications and Toyin Zubair, promoter of the defunct HiTV and now of In view.
At the press conference, Mohammed announced that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved outstanding payments to key DSO stakeholders, a development he said will remove all the hindrances to the entire process in the past three years. The funding source for the DSO, broadcast industry experts reckon, is from the N34billion paid by MTN for broadcast frequency.
“With the payment approval by FEC, and with 31 states to cover, we have our work cut out for us. We have no more excuses for not rapidly rolling out the DSO across the country, hence my decision to set up a 13-member Ministerial Task Force, which I will personally chair, to take charge of the rollout,” the minister said excitedly.
He added that the government took a decision last year, on account of the financial difficulties induced by Covid-19, that the DSO process will be private sector-driven, effectively cancelling the plan to provide subsidies for Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) or signal carriage.
What followed, typical of pronouncements on the DSO, was a raft of big-sounding and dreamy projections. The DSO, said the minister, will deliver over one million jobs in the next three years, with 50,000 of such coming via local production of 24 million STBs and Smart TVs.
“Not even 20 Set-Top-Box manufacturers can comfortably produce the initial requirements to feed the market. Furthermore, our position in West Africa, coupled with our size, makes us the definite source of these products for the whole sub-region,” he said.
Television production, he said, will create 200,000 jobs, as digitization will lead to “180 state channels, 30 regional channels and at least 10 national channels”. Digitization, he added, will boost local content propagation and draw many more Nigerians into the business. This, he said will create 400,000 jobs in film production and nudge Nollywood towards subscription Video-On-Demand on STBs and online, thereby providing cheaper distribution means, helping producers to make more money.
The envisaged boom in production, added the minister, will create an additional 200,000 jobs via increase in foreign demand for fully indigenous content and fetch the country in excess of $100 million.
“I have no doubt in my mind that a successful DSO is not just a job spinner, creating over one million jobs in three years, but also a money spinner,” said the minister.
Anyone familiar with the country’s DSO journey will not just doubt the minister’s projections, but dismiss them as drunkenly optimistic, especially given how squalidly it has been managed.
Undoubtedly, poor funding has inhibited the process. But more than that, squalid leadership and ill-conceived strategy are greater inhibitors. For instance, despite the pilot project, with the last roll-out three years ago in Osogbo, Osun State, there is no sustainable Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) coverage even in Plateau, Enugu, Osun, Kwara, and Kaduna states as well as the Federal Capital Territory, which were pilot states. Free Tv signals limited to state capitals.
This implies inhabitants outside state capitals are excluded and shows that the broadcast signal carriers selected for the DSO have inadequate technical and financial capacity for effective DTT coverage, the first step in the DSO.
The minister’s near-orgasmic projections on STBs, which convert analogue signals to digital, ignore the fact that the country, for strange reasons, chose a process that builds conditional access (CA) on top of the STBs instead of a standard affordable STB process. This means that the STBs process adopted for Nigeria’s for DSO will be out of the financial reach of most Nigerians. The standard STBs for DSO are supposed to receive free-to-air signal and affordable. Those with conditional access built onto them are similar to pay television STBs and are much pricier. Inview, the company providing the TV system/ conditional access, has already been paid N1billion for running the TV system only in Abuja and Jos.
The company and others involved in the process are understood to have filed invoices for additional sums.
The cancellation of subsidy for STBs, forced on the government by the inclement economic climate, is certain to ensure that the prices of the boxes will stretch users to breaking point. Prior to the devaluation of the naira, for instance, the recommended price STB ranged between N20,000 and N30,000. The boxes used in the roll-out at pilot locations were all imported, with the Federal Government giving the alleged STB manufacturers guarantees to fund the importation to the tune of N5billion.
The inordinately ambitious projection that Nigeria will, within three years, be heaving with locally manufactured STBs is something akin to a boxer’s boast-full of sound and fury.
According to experts, there are only three companies claiming to have STB assembly lines in the country and not a single one is manufacturing.
How the few companies, even operating at full capacity, can assemble 24 million STBs over five years has something that has eluded experts, who reckon that it will take a minimum of five years to meet the demand of 24million users- if all the companies function at full capacity. Importantly, not one of those claiming to have assembly/manufacturing capacities are in operation, meaning that they are engaged in no economic activities and employ nobody, thereby bilking the country through government contracts.
But they are not alone and are actually encouraged by the disposition of government officials, who view funding for the DSO process as “serve yourself,” the local parlance for buffet.
In a 21 March 2019 report published by The Guardian, experts interviewed identified corruption as the main obstacle to the country’s transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. A Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is on suspension from office and facing prosecution by the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) over allegedly fraudulent release of N2.5billion to a private company. The matter, which is before the Federal High Court, Abuja, relates to the 2016 release of N10 billion to the Ministry of Information and Culture for the DSO.
The ICPC is accusing the suspended D-G of using his position to confer a corrupt advantage on his associates in two private companies.
The suspended D-G is alleged to have asked the Information Minister to approve payment of N2.5 billion to Pinnacle Communications Limited, a private signal distribution operator, as “seed grant” for the DSO for which it was ineligible. Mohammed, who was listed as a witness in the trial, claimed he approved the payment based on expert advice given by the suspended D-G. The DSO guidelines, provided by a Federal Government Whitepaper, directed that the process be exclusively managed by companies affiliated to the Federal Government. Based on the guidelines, two companies were nominated for the purpose. One of these was ITS, an affiliate to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), which has no infrastructure of its own and is relying on the one owned by another private operator. It got also go N1.7billion as seed grant.
The assumption that our wonky DSO system will boost local content production because it will serve as distribution platform is also one without basis, as International Telecommunications Union (ITU) DSO policy is simply transiting free-to-air analogue signals to digital signal. Thus, Nigeria’s system, with its in-built conditional access system, will rob Nigerians of the constitutionally-guaranteed right to receive information in view of the fact that most free-to-air broadcaster are government-owned. In effect, 90 million Nigerians already living in poverty will be required to buy STBs, movies online and unlimited internet service to access such.
The claim that Nollywood output will benefit from better distribution is also a ruse. Nigerians are already using smart devices through which they access Nigerian creative content online.
Many have also blamed ministerial interference for the corrugated DSO process, arguing that worldwide, the DSO process is driven by the regulator and the industry.
What I have observed since 2015 is a lot of ministerial interference which, in addition to other factors, will leave the country panting to achieve DTT coverage by the time the rest of the world would have moved on a more modern platform, the OTT
-Omuedi, a retired broadcast engineer, writes from Ughelli
Nigeria’s pay-TV industry is facing one of its toughest periods in years as consumers increasingly migrate from conventional antenna and decoder-based television services to cheaper, more flexible and on-demand streaming platforms
The shift is putting pressure on established operators, such as MultiChoice, owners of DStv and GOtv; StarTimes and other traditional pay-TV providers, whose business models have long depended on recurring monthly subscriptions as per report by Business Hallmark.
According to Business Hallmark, the changing consumer behaviour is being driven by a combination of factors, including demographic transition, rising subscription costs, declining household purchasing power, improved internet access and the growing popularity of streaming services that allow viewers to pay for specific content or watch programmes at their convenience.
Streaming platforms are steadily expanding their appeal, offering consumers access to movies, sports (especially football matches and wrestling bouts), local content and international programs through smartphones, smart televisions and other internet-enabled devices.
Also, the proliferation of affordable data packages and connected devices has lowered the barrier to entry, allowing consumers to bypass traditional decoders altogether and consume content directly online.
Three of the major factors behind the changing behaviour of Nigerian television consumers are growing internet access, economic squeeze and changing demography.
Pay-TV subscriptions, once regarded by many households as a relatively affordable source of entertainment, are now competing with several other demands on disposable income.
For instance, entertainment spending are increasingly being subjected to tougher scrutiny with household budgets under pressure from food, tuition, transportation, electricity, housing and other essential costs.
Business Hallmark checks revealed that frequent price reviews by MultiChoice Nigeria’s have pushed the firm’s products beyond the reach of many Nigerians.
One of its products, GOtv, initially designed for average Nigerians, has six packages, namely GOtv Supa Plus, GOtv Supa, Gotv Max, GOtv Jolli, GOtv Jinja and GOtv Smallie.
GOtv Supa Plus with over 85+ channels currently goes for a monthly subscription fee of N16,800; GOtv Supa N11,400; Gotv Max N8,500; GOtv Jolli N5,800; GOtv Jinja N3,900, while GOtv Smallie subscribers choose between the N1,900/monthly, N5,100/quarterly and N15,000/annually options.
Similarly, following multiple tariff reviews, DStv Premium currently goes for N44,500 monthly; DStv Compact Plus N30,000; DStv Compact N19,000; DStv Confam N11,000; DStv Yanga N6,000 and DStv Padi N4,400.
On the other hand, StarTimes, which serves its customers through antenna signal transmission and satellite transmission, has only three bouquets, Nova, Basic, and Classic.
While Classic, the most expensive bouquet on the StarTimes’ shelf currently cost N6,000 monthly, Basic costs N4,000, while Nova costs N2,100.
While speaking to our correspondent on the major shift, some consumers explained that the choice is no longer between different pay-TV providers but between maintaining a television subscription and cancelling it altogether.
Eighty-two Nigerians, representing 68% of the 120 Pay-TV subscribers, who participated in an online survey conducted by Business Hallmark, said they opted for less expensive and more flexible alternatives, including YouTube and a growing range of streaming platforms, using smartphones, laptops, smart televisions and other internet-enabled devices to access entertainment.Geographic Reference
According to the respondents, the shift towards streaming lies partly in its flexibility. Instead of waiting for a program to be broadcast at a scheduled time, viewers now search for specific films, series, sporting events or other contents, which can be watched immediately, or downloaded to be watched or listened to later.
“I now watch contents when I want, across multiple devices, without necessarily being tied to the traditional channel and time-based television experience”, said Tolu Olamiti, an accountant in an audit firm in Lagos.
Another factor that is fueling the exodus from pay-TV model is the growing youth population. Checks revealed that online streaming is particularly attractive to phone-savvy younger viewers, whose television consumption habits are markedly different from those of previous generations.
While underage children watch cartoons and educational programs mostly from their parents or older siblings internet-enabled gadgets, teenagers and adults now watch news, sports programs and films through live streaming or download preferred programs to be watched later.
“With N200 data, I can download several new films to be watched at my convenience, instead of the old films, which providers always repeat on their channels. I also listen to music through out the day without worrying about electricity as my phone can go 2 days after full charge”, said Chukwuemeka Ibe, a student of Lagos State University (LASU).
In the same vein, access to fast and cheap internet plans is helping to drive the streaming surge. For instance, a subscriber can get a daily 1G data plan on the MTN Nigeria platform for just N200. This data plan can be used to download up to 1,000MB movies, or for streaming several hours of music online.
According to official statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), internet consumption in Nigeria reached 13.2 million terabytes in 2025, representing a 35 per cent increase from 2024, while average monthly data usage per active subscriber increased from 3.3 gigabytes in January 2023 to 7.4 gigabytes by May 2025.Geographic Reference
The NCC data indicates growing reliance on mobile internet services and digital platforms across the country with active internet subscriptions rising from 169.3 million in January 2025 to 182.2 million by January 2026.
Also, active internet subscriptions also surpassed 142 million.
Before the advent of internet, traditional pay-TV operators had ruled the television viewing industry largely through channel packages, exclusive content and decoder penetration. However, the rise of streaming has fundamentally altered the competitive landscape of Nigeria’s entertainment industry.
Fueled by the spread of smart devices and improved internet connectivity, streaming companies have been able to compete with traditional TV and radio providers through original programming, on-demand access, convenient timing and increased personalized viewing experiences.
A subscriber, who previously needed a satellite dish or digital terrestrial television decoder to access premium entertainment, can now use a smartphone or smart television and an internet connection.
The proliferation of affordable smartphones has further accelerated the process. Mobile phones have become entertainment devices for millions of Nigerians, particularly younger consumers, who spend more time watching short-form videos, movies and online programs than conventional television.
Also, social media platforms have become important competitors for consumers’ limited attention. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other digital platforms provide enormous volumes of free or relatively inexpensive video content, forcing traditional broadcasters to compete not only for subscribers but also for viewers’ time.
Several pay-TV subscribers, who spoke to our correspondent on the matter, said providers can no longer justify the traditional model of paying a fixed monthly fee for hundreds of channels they rarely watch.
Awba-Ofemili Development Union (ADU) Health Committee has officially announced the launch of the Awba-Ofemili Health Awareness Campaign 2026, a community-wide initiative designed to promote preventive healthcare, disease awareness, early detection, health education, and healthy living across Awba-Ofemili.
Awba-Ofemili Health Awareness Campaign
The campaign, themed “Beyond Elu-Ulee (Buruli Ulcer): Building a Healthier Awba-Ofemili,” will be held on Thursday, 17 September 2026, at the Civic Centre, Awba-Ofemili, beginning at 9:00 a.m.
The programme builds on the success of the committee’s maiden Elu-Ulee (Buruli Ulcer) Awareness Campaign, which raised awareness on Buruli ulcer and strengthened community engagement on preventive healthcare.
According to the Chairman of the ADU Health Committee, Ogbuefi Remmy Nweke, KSM, the 2026 campaign represents a significant expansion of the committee’s health intervention agenda.
“This campaign is about moving beyond awareness to action. We want to deepen community health education, encourage early detection of preventable diseases, strengthen school health initiatives, promote First Aid awareness, and build sustainable partnerships that will improve the health and well-being of our people,” he said.
The 2026 campaign will feature community health education, free basic health screening, school health support, First Aid awareness programmes, and stakeholder engagement with healthcare professionals, development partners, and community organisations.
The committee has called on sons and daughters of Awba-Ofemili, residents, friends of the community, corporate organisations, philanthropic individuals, NGOs, healthcare institutions, and development partners to support the initiative through financial contributions and strategic partnerships.
To support the implementation of the campaign, the ADU Health Committee has opened a dedicated fundraising channel through Fidelity Bank Plc, with donations payable to Awba-Ofemili Education Volunteers (Account No. 6060490921).
The Committee appealed to all supporters to use “HEALTH FUND” as the transfer narration so that contributions can be properly recorded and accounted for under the ADU Health Committee Health Fund.
Secretary of the ADU Health Committee, Mr. Cornelius Nwakonobi, emphasized that every contribution would make a meaningful impact.
“No donation is too small. Every contribution will support community health education, medical outreach, school health programmes, First Aid support, and preventive healthcare initiatives. Together, we can build a healthier, stronger, and more resilient Awba-Ofemili,” he stated.
The ADU Health Committee reaffirmed its commitment to working with government agencies, healthcare professionals, development organisations, the Nigerian Red Cross, community stakeholders, and the Awba-Ofemili diaspora to advance sustainable health interventions in the community.
For partnership enquiries, sponsorship, or additional information, interested organisations and individuals are encouraged to contact the ADU Health Committee Secretariat.
Broadcasting
NBC Files Fresh Appeal against Judgment Barring it from Imposing Fines on Broadcast Stations
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has filed an application seeking the permission of the court of appeal to file a fresh appeal against the judgement of the federal high court in Abuja barring it from imposing fines on erring broadcast stations.
In the application filed at the court of appeal in Abuja by Dapo Akinosun, counsel to the NBC, the commission argued sanity in Nigeria’s broadcasting sector is under threat and that the public interest would be better served if the court grants the application.
On January 17, 2024, Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, a judge at the federal high court in Abuja, restrained the NBC from imposing a N5 million fine on broadcast stations sanctioned in 2022 over allegations of “undermining Nigeria’s national security by broadcasting documentaries on banditry in Nigeria”.
The affected broadcast stations were Multichoice Nigeria Limited, owners of DSTV; TelCom Satellite Limited (TSTV); Trust-TV Network Limited; and NTA StarTimes Limited.
The suit was filed by Media Rights Agenda (MRA).
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the NBC appealed the judgement filed an appeal at the court of appeal in Abuja.
In June, the court of appeal dismissed the commission’s appeal, holding that it was “fundamentally defective” and incompetent.
Jane Inyang, lead judge of the panel, held that the parties before the lower court were identified as “Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda (as applicant) and National Broadcasting Commission (as respondent)” but in the notice of appeal the purported appellant was described as the “Nigerian Broadcasting Commission”,
The judge held that the discrepancy was significant and that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the commission’s appeal.
In the application, the NBC urged the court to grant it leave to raise and argue a fresh issue on appeal relating to the legal capacity of MRA to institute and maintain the original suit before the lower court.
The commission argued that the defect in the earlier notice of appeal, which resulted in the dismissal of its appeal, arose “solely from an inadvertent misdescription” of its name by its lawyer.
The NBC told the court that the subsisting judgement raises questions on the commission’s statutory powers to regulate broadcasting and enforce compliance with broadcasting standards in Nigeria.
The commission argued that the subsisting judgment is capable of creating uncertainty regarding its regulatory powers if it is allowed to stand.
The NBC also argued that without the pronouncement by the appellate court on the issues raised in the appeal, its regulatory framework would be weakened.
“A weakened regulatory framework may embolden non-compliance with established broadcasting standards, thereby increasing the dissemination of false, misleading and unverified information capable of causing unnecessary public anxiety, panic and social unrest,” the NBC said.
“Absence of effective regulatory oversight may further encourage irresponsible broadcasting practices and the misuse of broadcast and digital media platforms by persons who deliberately publish sensational, inaccurate or inflammatory content to intimidate, harass or unduly influence individuals, institutions and public discourse.”
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