Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, has hailed the partnership between the Chinese media group StarTimes and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), saying the partnership has revolutionized television viewing.
‘’We are very proud of our association with you, especially the partnership between you and the NTA,’’ the minister said when he visited the headquarters of StarTimes in Beijing, China, on Monday, June 20, 2016.
In a statement, Segun Adeyemi, a media aide to Lai Mohammed, revealed that he also expressed gratitude to the chairman of the company, Mr. Xinxing Pang, over his stated plans to expand its operations in Nigeria.
The minister, who undertook a guided tour of the StarTimes headquarters, congratulated the company for the ‘’’giant strides’’ it had made in under 30 years of its existence.
Welcoming the minister earlier, Mr. Pang described the NTA as his company’s most important partner in Africa, saying the Chinese firm is ready to invest more in Nigeria, especially in the area of content provision.
Lai Mohammed also said that StarTimes’ planned expansion in Nigeria would include the establishment of a manufacturing plant in the country to produce decoders and television sets, as well as the building of state-of-the-art studios.
The chairman of StarTimes said the vision of his company is for every African family to have access to high quality digital television.
The company, which was established in 1988, operates in more than 30 African countries, with over 7 million digital television subscribers.
Lai Mohammed’s China trip became the subject of controversy after it was revealed that he has demanded a N13.1 million loan from one of the agencies under his ministry, the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NCC) early in May, 2016.
Official documents showing the loan request were released to the media by a whistleblower prompting a response from Mr. Mohammed, first, that he didn’t have “owe you any explanation on how public money is spent”. Following a public backlash, the ministry released a statement saying that “saboteurs” had leaked the document and there was nothing wrong with the loan request.
