Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said that Nigeria is on the verge of technological Independence as he joined in the Inauguration of an Ultra Modern Digital Setup Box Manufacturing Plant on Thursday in Calabar.
The plant, which is owned by Gospell Digital Technology and located at Calabar Export Free Zone, is capable of manufacturing TV decoders, prepaid electricity meter, smartphones and its regarded as one of the country’s largest electronic manufacturing and assembly. The Plant can also manufacture TV main boards, tablets computers and all kind of electronic device.
The Minister applauded the investors and managers of the plant for showing absolute confidence and trust in the economy and good fortune of the Country and in the Digital Switch Over (DSO) programme.
He called on Gospell Digital Technology and other Set Top Boxes/Decoders manufacturers to produce a multipurpose television that would change the television of Nigerians.
“The average home today, in order to have access to the various types of entertainment, will require a television, a Set Top Box and a VCD/DVD player.
“This era is about to end. I am challenging the industry to move to one device in the home – the television. Give us a TV with a built-in decoder and the requisite middle-ware inside it.
“And please not for the rich, but for every Nigerian home. With that, we would have succeeded in the reduction of the cost of access to television, information and education.”
The Group Managing Director of the company, Mr Godfrey Ohuanbunwa, said the plant signals a new dawn in the electronic and IT manufacturing sector in Nigeria.
He said the plant has had three Surface Mount Technology Automatic Chip Placement lines and four pneumatic Assembly lines and have the capacity of placing 2500. 00 components per hour.
He also added that the Plant is going to produce 20 Set Top Box per month, manufacture 100,000 printed circuit boards and would also generate not less than 500 job opportunities.
As at 2016, 13 set top boxes manufacturing companies were licensed by the Federal Government.
With the Minister promising that the Country would switch to digital broadcasting by June 20 this year, the DSO has been rolled to only six States which are Kwara, Delta, Enugu, Gombe and Osun with the exception of Plateau where it was first launched in 2016.
