THE Federal Government has said that the on-going investigations into the alleged N15 billion fraud at the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will not stop the digital switchover project.

Meanwhile, after a successful launch of the pilot scheme, plans are being finalised to launch the digital switchover in Abuja and Lagos before moving to other parts of the country.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who stated this yesterday in Abuja said the nation cannot afford to miss the June 2017 deadline because Nigeria would be left behind and there will be interference in our signals if the country misses the deadline.

The minister noted that Nigeria has missed two deadlines to transit from analogue to digital in the past, in addition to missing a number of self-imposed dates for the pilot scheme.

He said: “EFCC has the right to investigate any graft and it will continue to investigate any issue they deem proper. We will not micro-manage what they do, digitisation project must go on irrespective of the irregularities that must have taken place in the past.”

Mohammed explained that the Federal Government has licensed 13 set-top box manufacturers and three signal distributors for the project, adding that the signal distributor paid about N600 million.

He observed that all the licensed set-top box manufacturers have been mandated to set up their manufacturing plants in Nigeria, stressing that this will create jobs for Nigerians.

The minister added that set-top box manufacturers licensed by Nigeria would not only manufacture for the 30 million viewers in the country but also for the ECOWAS sub region. Persuading state governors to provide set-top boxes for their people.