TheCable

Innoson Group says it is partnering with a consortium of Chinese investors to pump $1bn into Nigeria’s information technology sector.

According to Innoson, the investments include $400 million, which will be invested in Nigeria’s DSO project in digital satellite TV station, and an additional $600 million covering other important sectors.

On Monday, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo will receive a consortium of Chinese Foreign Investment Group, led by Liu Baoju, a deputy minister of Communist Party of China in Shandong Province, who is also the chairman of Shandong Broadcasting Group and Shandong Cable Interactive Service Ltd, the world’s biggest TV operators.

Huang Gang, senior vice president of Inspur Group and president of its overseas headquarters, is expected to attend the meeting.

Inspur Group is credited to be China’s leading cloud computer solution supplier and cloud service provider involving all IT applications.

This visit, which comes as one of the gains of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to China, will attract a foreign investment of $1 billion. The breakdown of the investment as currently agreed by the Chinese Consortium is as follows:

• Financial foreign investment credit facility of $300million USD for local production and supply of a minimum five to eight Million (5-8million) Set-Top Boxes to support the Federal Government of Nigeria Digital Switch Over (DSO) project being handled by the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission in order to meet the deadline switch of June 2017.
• Financial foreign investment of $100million USD to establish the latest technology and biggest DTH (Direct-To-Home) Digital BING Television Station across all states of Nigeria.

In addition, the above two immediate investments are being followed by another $600 million investment in which negotiations are almost fully concluded with strategic partners to cover the following areas of Nigerian economy:

•  Smart City (CCTV camera) using cloud computing total solution that is known as E-Policing to cover the whole landmass of Nigeria
• Cloud Computing Total Solution on Taxation with IT applications for such institutions as Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and other taxation agencies for seamless and stress-free tax collection mechanism
• E-Education IT Solutions with big data centers for all Federal Universities and Polytechnics in the country

Cornel Osigwe, head, public relations, said the focus point of the investment would go a long way to boost the economy with the following benefits:

• Assist the federal government to meet its June 2017 deadline for the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting services
• Establishment of 40 lines of production and manufacturing complex for making Broadcast Digital Set-Top-Boxes, the biggest of its kind in the whole of Africa
• Job creation of over 5,000 jobs in the Innoson Group Set-Top-Box manufacturing complex in Nigeria within the next two years
• Job creation of about 2,000 jobs by Innoson BING Digital DTH Television operation across Nigeria with the first two years.
• Nigeria will become the manufacturing hub for Set-Top-Box in Africa with the attendant benefit of earning foreign exchange through exports from Innoson Manufacturing Complex
• Innoson Group would put into use its biggest plastic industry at Enugu by locally manufacturing most of the plastic components of the Set-Top-Box thereby saving cost
• Another important benefit is that BING TV Project will engage the almost under-utilised Nigerian Communication Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) situated at Obasanjo Space Centre in Abuja with its numerous benefits of saving foreign exchange by buying into Nigeria available goods and services, instead of engaging foreign satellite and transponders as all our other competitors here in Nigeria are currently doing
• Providing adequate National security using cloud computing technology to secure our country against insurgency, militancy, kidnapping and all other forms of dangerous crimes