By Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has revealed that the Federal Government would make $1.1 billion (over N400 billion) revenue when the switch-over from analogue to digital broadcasting is completed and would create two million jobs in the next three years.

Mohammed disclosed this on Wednesday, after the the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the State House, Abuja.

The Minister who gave his ministry’s scorecard during the cabinet meeting, said that a machinery was already in place to create one million jobs out of the targeted two million.

Giving the breakdown of the prospective revenues, he said that $1 billion (450bn) would be realised from the sale of the spectrum that would be vacated when the analogue to digital migration was completed.

He added that additional $1 million would be generated from the collection of television licences and digital access fees.

According to him, with this and other initiatives from the ministry, no fewer than two million jobs would be created in the next three years in accordance with President Buhari’s vision to lift 100 million from poverty. 

“ The good news, as contained in today’s presentation, is that the Ministry of Information and Culture is set to create over two million jobs within the next three years. We are doing this through the implementation of deliverable number seven, which mandates us to collaborate with the private sector to create jobs for the youth.

“Gentlemen, the number one job creator under the Ministry of Information and Culture is the Digital Switch Over (DSO) in broadcasting, which is set to create one million jobs in the next three years through the manufacturing of set-top-boxes (decoders) and TV sets, TV and Film production, as well as TV and Online advertising and Data, among others.

“Of course, the DSO will also fetch $100 Million from the collection of TV licences and Digital Access Fees, as well as $1 billion from the sale of the spectrum that would be vacated once the Analogue to Digital migration has been completed. 

“Please note that we have so far rolled out the DSO in five states (Enugu, Osun, Kwara, Kaduna and Plateau States) as well as the Federal Capital Territory. We are now set to extend the rollout to all parts of the country,” the Minister said.

Mohammed who presented the account of his stewardship from August 2019 to June 2020 to the council, was confident that the reform in the advertising industry would also yield $200 million to $400 million revenues and also create thousands of jobs.

“Also, the ongoing reform of the broadcast and advertising Industries is aimed at strengthening the industries so they can live up to their billing and generate more job opportunities. In the broadcast industry, the reform will, among others, propel revolutionary advantages in the area of promoting entrepreneurship in the local industry. 

“As for the Advertising Sector, bringing Nigeria’s TV advertisement market to what it should be, which is three times its current size, could result in additional $200-$400 million revenue to the industry, in addition to creating thousands of jobs,” he said.

Mohammed further said that the cultural industries centres that are scattered across the country have the capacity to create 500,000 jobs within the next three years, adding that another 100,000 jobs would be realised from the restoration of museums, especially in Lagos, Plateau and Kwara.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, on his part said the Council also approved the rehabilitation and construction of Lankang Irrigation Project in Plateau State at the the sum of N634,184,783.93 million inclusive of 7.5% VAT, with the completion period of 18 months and a defect liability period of 12 months.

He said the project comprised “the rehabilitation of 100 hectares of an existing pilot irrigation scheme and the expansion of that irrigation scheme by additional 500 hectares. It also includes the reconstruction of existing damage water control and conveying structure, preparation of fields and fishponds and provision of adequate water for irrigation.

“It was approved in line with government’s policy to boost food production and security and in the coming months we’ll be seeing quite a number of projects, related to irrigation, that we’ll be presenting, in line with our irrigation and drainage project, in what we call the National Irrigation and Drainage Programme, 2016 to 2030, under which we hope to increase total acreage for irrigation in the country from the existing 130,000 hectares to 500,000 hectares. From the period that we started to date, our target was to have 100,000 hectares by 2020. As at January we had about 85,000 hectares, which is already completed. So we are still on target towards attaining the 100,000 for 2020, under the programme.”

Earlier, the Minister or Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said that council also approved about N10 billion contracts for Abaji-Lokoja and Cham-Numan section of the Gombe-Yola Highway.

“Today what we had were two memoranda for revision of project cost and all of this is in aid of completion of the projects involved.

“The first project is the Koton-Karfe-Lokoja section of Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja Highway. That cost was revised upwards by N3.076 billion. The reason was that about two years ago there was a very bad accident on the Gudu-Hada Bridge that damaged the bridge, truck caught fire, so the bridge has to be reconstructed. It was initially just to be repaired in the main contract, so we have to construct it as an emergency work then. Now the contractor has filed the claims for it.

“That’s part of it, then to provide additional into Lokoja town and also to repair some of the sections that have failed because that road was awarded since 2006 so we are just trying to complete it.

“The second road is the Cham-Numan section of the Gombe-Yola Highway. The revision of the cost is by N7.607 billion. This is to cover the cost of replacing about 11kilometres of what we call black cotton soil. This is very bad soil on the side near Savannah, that soil always cakes when it is dry season, it get mershy when it is wet season because it’s clay soil. So the contractor has to remove all of that soil over 11 kilometres and replace it with better soil and then build some drainages to deal with drainage challenges in that area. Council approved these two revisions,” he stated.