Digital switchover: N2.5bn payment to Pinnacle justified – NBC

Malam Is’haq Kawu Modibbo, Director-General, National
Broadcasting Commission (NBC) says the N2.5 billion paid to
Pinnacle communications Ltd, is justifiable.

Modibbo stated this in Abuja on Thursday while reacting to a
query by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related
Offences Commission (ICPC) over the payment.

Pinnacle Ltd. is the second licensed signal distributor for
digital switchover in Nigeria.

Modibbo said the White Paper on Digital Switchover (DSO)
stipulated that NBC should provide a platform for the second signal
distributor because the first signal distributor had facilities all
over the country.

“The white paper says the second signal distributor is coming in
with a disadvantage, so the NBC should provide a level playing
field to ensure that a signal distributor carryout the process
successfully.

“This is the context in which the payment was made and we did
not only pay just a signal distributor.

“NBC paid N2.5 billion to pinnacle communication for
facilitating digitisation in Abuja, Kaduna and other parts of the
country as the work progressed.

“NBC paid the first national signal distributor,
Integrated-Television-Services (ITS) N1.7 billion and as at the
time the money was paid, the exchange rate of naira to a dollar was
about N167.

“When we paid Pinnacle in 2017, the dollar exchange for naira
was N380.

“So if you look at N2.5 billion and N1.7 billion in terms of the
amount of money paid, the exchange rate had affected the payment so
it was not as if we just threw money at them. All those things were
measured,” he said.

He said that when the Federal Government released N10 billion to
NBC, it came with a directive that the money should be used for the
digital switchover process and supervised by the Minister of
Information and Culture.

According to him, every payment that NBC made in the context of
the digital switchover got approval from the Minister.

“We paid the signal distributors, Set Top Box manufacturers,
content aggregators, we have partly paid the set light provider and
we partly paid the people who are doing the call centre.

“To activate the box, you have to make certain calls to the
centre and we have call agents who work for NBC on 24 hour basis
and we pay them through the company,” he said.

Modibbo also said that NBC spent money to train its staff and
some members of the National Assembly on the digital switchover as
well as other stakeholders.

Modibbo explained that Pinnacle got the license after an open
bidding process that was broadcast on television, two years before
he came to the NBC.

He said the company has contributed immensely to the success of
digitisation more than any other signal distributor in the
country.

“Pinnacle has been the single largest contributor because they
paid a license fee of N680 million to the NBC,” he added. (NAN)

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