The launching ceremony of the “Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages” Nigeria Project was held on January 14 in Kpaduma, a suburban village in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory. Kpaduma was chosen as one of the 1000 Nigerian villages taking part in this project to enhance access to satellite TV.
The project is one of the China-Africa cooperation programs that came out of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2015. Under this project schools, hospitals and churches will each receive a TV set with access to 21 TV channels, and 20 families will each receive a set of direct broadcast satellite terminal systems and 21 TV channels for two months. After this period, the families can continue watching one satellite TV channel for free or pay N900 for 34 channels. The project is being carried out by StarTimes, a Chinese telecommunications company.
During the ceremony, Mr. Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, emphasized the power of information and the positive impact this project will bring to the country. As the 2019 general election approaches, he said, people in these villages will have a chance to be better informed about the candidates and policies than they were in the past.
