Free TV Nigeria Encourages Kwarans To Establish Community Broadcast Stations

Kwara State residents have been urged to invest more on community broadcasting as a means of reaching out to the people at the grassroots in various languages.

The Chairman Free TV , Nigeria , Mr Kunle Oshinsanya Afolabi gave the advise in Ilorin , the state capital while featuring on a Radio Kwara personality interview programme, Playing Host .

Mr Afolabi said that community radio stations would further allow for easy communication, reduce communal clashes , create new openings for  the teaming population, new job opportunities , while its cost effective and commended the state government for digitizing its broadcast stations.

Similarly, he implored Kwarans to apply for the manufacturing of decoder boxes through the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as the boxes needed in country today is not less than two hundred million to meet up with the present Nigeria’s population.

According to him , local manufacturing of the decoder boxes would improve our technological base , improve our economy and create employment opportunities for our youths and announced that NBC has already granted seven indigenous manufactures to manufacture the boxes locally.

He added that the boxes are given out to Nigerians by the Federal Government free as part of its subsidy programme and that the one thousand , five hundred Naira paid per box is for the revenue paid  for Radio , Television and Local government licenses stressing that ordinarily , each decoder box cost between thirty five to forty dollars ( About N 14, 400)

The Chairman of Free TV who enumerated the advantages of digitization disclosed that it eradicate piracy as no one takes the job of another while it would enhance clarity and quality,  as well as allows for more stations to be watched.

Mr Afolabi cleared the air on the issue of meeting the deadline for digitization and disclosed that the country was still on course adding that recently some African countries even came to Nigeria to understudy her digitization proceeds and they were impressed and pleaded with Nigeria to assist them in setting up their Digital Switch over (DSO) project.