Deadline for Ghana's much anticipated digital migration, which is aimed at providing the over 28 million Ghanaians the opportunity to enjoy a 100% television experience across the nation, has been postponed to next year - 2018.
The development follows a disclosure made earlier in the week by Ghana’s Minister for Communications – Ursula Owusu – Ekuful that the country was not prepared for the move.
The Minister at a forum on Digital Migration held in Accra earlier during the week noted that: “The draft Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) policy designated 21st September 2017 as the deadline for analogue switch-off. However since the project implementation process has not followed the agreed schedules, I can announce that it will not happen in September 2017. We are not ready and it is not a process that we should rush into.â€
She added that “even in technologically advanced countries, they had issues with the digital migration process so we will make haste slowly and do it right. However it is likely to happen next year 2018 and we will have a phased approach. But the dates and the timings of that will also be finalized in consultation with all stakeholdersâ€.
The September 2017 deadline was fixed by the erstwhile President Mahama administration and had been widely criticized as being far too late against the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)’s June 2015 stipulated deadline for the migration.
Prior to that, the ITU had mounted intense pressure on governments across the globe to fast-track processes to facilitate migration from analogue to digital broadcasting in their various countries and had given June 2015 as deadline for the completion of that process.
It was only probable that Ghana, one of Africa’s most technologically advanced countries, was actually signing a contract with K-Net Limited for the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network project in October 2015 (three months after the ITU deadline had elapsed).
However, many supporters of the initiative argued that having it late was better than not having it at all, or an outright non-compliance which would put Ghana in a bad light on the question of its openness to global technological advancement.
Justifying the delay, the Minister sighted a number of reasons including the fact that government is also in the process of establishing a DTT Company, in accordance with the DTT policy implementation road-map to manage the transmission stage of the broadcasting value chain.
She further hinted that the process was delaying because a company with similar name and objectives has allegedly been registered by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation at the Registrar General’s Department.
Moreover, “the absence of the board of directors for the GBC is delaying a decision to be taken to dissolve the company and allow the national platform to register its nameâ€.