Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information who made an appearance before the senate committee on local and foreign loans in a bid to defend the request for a $500m loan which is a part of the $30b President Buhari is requesting to be approved said that NTA( Nigeria Television Authority) will be in competition with CNN( Cable News Network) if the loan his ministry requested for is granted.
He also stated that NTA can only get to that standard if it gets digitised and theres already manpower in place for the project, and that this mission if approved will give visibility to the people in various sectors like music, film industries and fashion.
He said:
‘In 2014, we made $23m from music alone and about $53m in 2019 and we are looking forward to making $83m in 2025.
‘You can imagine the kind of growth we will have if only we digitise all the NTA stations in the country.
‘Apart from agriculture, which is the largest employer of labour in Nigeria, especially the youths, the next largest employer of labour is the creative industry.’
‘The International Telecommunication Union(ITU) in 2006 gave June 17,2015 as a deadline for all members of the organisation to migrate from analogue to digital.
‘Regrettably, we were unable to meet the deadline along side most countries in sub-saharan Africa, the deadline was moved to 2017, which was not reliable and today the target is June 17,2020.’
source:The Vanguard news
