The Group Managing Director of Gospell Digital Technology (GDT) Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly Company, Calabar, Sir Godfrey Ohuabunwa has assured that the company will satisfy the needs of Nigerians in the delivery of quality Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) used in the drive for Digital Switch over (DSO).
Currently, scarcity of STBs is the teething challenge hobbling the rollout of services in some of the states that have been confirmed ready for DSO experience including Kaduna, Kwara, Gombe Delta and Enugu States.
In his welcome address during the recent inauguration of the ultra-modern Digital STBs manufacturing plant, at the Calabar Export Free Zone, he said the plant marked a new dawn in the electronic and IT manufacturing sector in Nigeria.
He said the plant was also capable of producing 20,000 Set Top Boxes per month, manufacture 100,000 printed circuit boards per month and would generate not less than 500 job opportunities.
According to him, in addition to manufacturing of DTT and DTH boxes, the plant had three Surface Mount Technology Automatic Chip Placement lines and four pneumatic Assembly lines.
Ohuabunwa revealed further that the lines are equipped with the capacity of placing 250,000 components per hour.
Earlier in his remarks, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said Nigeria was gradually moving toward technological independence, stressing that the plant can be regarded as one of the country’s largest electronic manufacturing and assembly.
He added that with the level of installations, the plant is capable of manufacturing TV decoders, prepaid electricity meter, smart phones, TV main boards, tablets computers and all kinds of electronic devices.
While commending the investors and the managers of the plant for exhibiting absolute confidence in the country and ongoing DSO programme, Mohammed challenged Gospell Digital Technology and other manufacturers of Set Top Boxes/Decoders to produce a multi-purpose television set that would help in transforming the TV experience of Nigerians.
In his argument, he said “The average home today, in order to have access to the various types of entertainment, will require a television, a Set Top Box and a VCD/DVD player”.
“This era is about to end. I am challenging the industry to move to one device in the home – the television. Give us a TV with a built-in decoder and the requisite middle-ware inside it. And please not for the rich, but for every Nigerian home,” the Minister averred.
In his goodwill message, Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River, expressed satisfaction with the manufacturer for locating the plant in Calabar and promised to buy 5000 Set Top Boxes and encouraged the investors to engage people from the state in its employment as a way of supporting the growth of the company.
Other dignitaries that graced the plant commissioning include the Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Sen. Suleiman Adokwe, Senators Shehu Sani, Samuel Anyanwu; Mao Ohuabunwa and the Director-General, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Malam Is’haq Modibo-Kawu attended the occasion.
