The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said that the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) will reach the standard of Cable News Network (CNN) if the $500 million loan his ministry is seeking is approved.
Mohammed disclosed this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Loans on Monday.
Okay.ng understands that the $500m requested by the Information Ministry is part of the $29.96 billion loan President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking approval for funding infrastructure.
According to the minister, the NTA already has the “manpower and the technology” but the only thing left was to digitise the network.
He said: “If this project is approved, there will be more visibility for our people in the music, fashion and film industries.”
“In 2014, we made $23 million from music alone and about $53 million in 2019 and we are looking forward to making $83 million in 2025.
“You can imagine the kind of growth we will have if only we digitise all the NTA stations in the country.”
In addition, Lai Mohammed noted that the creative industry is a major employer of the youth.
He said: “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 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.”
