China Launches Access Satellite TV Project For 10,000 Villages In Africa

The Chinese government has launched access to satellite TV project for 10,000 villages aimed at providing digital TV access to rural communities across Africa. About 1000 villages in Nigeria will benefit from the project.

This, according to it, is to ensure that the economic ties between it and Nigeria are preserved through infrastructural projects that will uplift the people of the local communities.

Chief Executive Officer, StarTimes Nigeria, Justin Zhang, who disclosed this yesterday at the launch of the project in Kpaduma Village, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), noted that StarTimes was contracted by the Chinese government to deliver on the project across Africa.

He said the project would help meet the ITU’s demand for African countries to achieve digital migration of TV industry before the year 2020.

According to him: “We have entered an advanced stage in the installation of satellite TV access to 1000 villages in Nigeria. The villages identified for this project will receive two solar power projector TVs for the community, digital TV sets, 20 satellite dish and decoders where they can watch more than 100 international and local channels all free of charge.”

Also, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the project came at a better time that Nigerians would need access to information now to know about the over 70 political parties that will be participating in the elections as well as their various candidates.

He appealed to StarTimes to expedite the installation of the satellite TV systems in the selected villages ahead of the elections, as this will go a long way in making it easier for Nigerians to make the right choice of candidates to vote for during the elections, adding that access to information will no doubt have a positive effect on the lives of people in our rural communities.

The minister stated that under the project, each of the 1,000 carefully-chosen villages in Nigeria will receive two sets of solar-powered projector television systems and one set of solar 32-inch digital TV integrated terminal system, among others. Meanwhile, Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian, has expressed China’s willingness to continue to bring projects that will better a lot of Nigerians and Africans at large.―The Guardian