Kano state says it plans to distribute 100,000 units of free television set-top-boxes for government offices, and indigent and poor households in the state.

The programme, which will see households get the item at a subsidised rate, was disclosed at the official launch of the Digital Switch Over (DSO) for Kano State on Tuesday.

According to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, the state was planning to “partner with one of the licenced manufacturers of Set-Top-Boxes in Nigeria for the supply of the STB to all the 44 local government areas of the state.

“Beginning with 10,000 units, accordingly, 700 units will be supplied to 114 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), 70 to the 15 tertiary institutions, 1,460 to Senior Secondary Schools and offices of political office holders,” he said.

The governor said he had directed the supply of 44,000 STBs to 44 local government areas in the state, with 100 STBs to be given to each local government area.

“Beneficiaries will be primary healthcare centres, local education authorities, primary schools, as well as community viewing centres and local government councils.”

The governor said the state government had already trained 100 technicians who would be moving from one place to another to fix the facilities.

In his remarks, the Director-General, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Balarabe Shehu-IIelah, said Kano State had an estimated 2,147,005 households, 1.6 million Television Viewing Homes and a projected population of 12,882,030.

According to him, a “baseline study conducted by the NBC in 2017, indicated that Kano has about 12,882,030 in projected population,” adding “That is why the rollout in Kano is crucial to the success of the DSO project in Nigeria.”

He further stated that Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt were reserved for the second phase of the programme because of their populous and commercial attributes.

(NAN)