Government of Kenya acknowledges benefits of digital migration

Government of Kenya acknowledges benefits of digital migration

Nairobi, Kenya, February 19, ZANIS —— The government of the Republic of Kenya says migrating to digital broadcasting has a lot of benefits for the country and its nationals.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication Bitange Ndemo said this when a Zambian delegation on digital migration study tour to Tanzania and Kenya led by Information Deputy Minister Mwansa Kapeya paid a courtesy call on him at his office yesterday.

Dr Ndemo said digital migration other than creating a huge investment potential will also create a platform to document culture and tradition.

Dr Ndemo said he was happy that many countries in the region, Zambia and Kenya inclusive, have made tremendous progress in migrating from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting platform.

He said that digital migration has other benefits such as e-commence and e-learning that will improve the lives of the people.

Dr Ndenge said it is important that Zambia decided to undertake a study tour to see how other countries in the region were implementing the programme of migration from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.

And Dr Ndemo has paid glowing tributes to the people of Zambia for the peaceful transition of power after the September 20, tripartite elections.

Dr Ndemo said Zambia is a beacon of peace and democracy in Africa adding that many African countries have a lot to learn from Zambia and its growing democracy.

He said he is sure that the people of Kenya will follow the same steps of the Zambians by voting peacefully during the forth coming national elections scheduled for March 4 next month.

Meanwhile, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) says it is currently carrying over 20 television signals for other contents providers before authorities appoint an official distributor of the signal.

KBC DVB-T Project Manager Elly Ndwigah disclosed this when a Zambian delegation on digital migration study tour visited the national broadcaster.

Mr Ndwigah says authorities decided to do this so as to go ahead with the digital migration switch off while at the same time allow the consumers to have access to many channels from various content providers.

Mr Ndwigah also emphasized the need to involve the consumers in awareness programmes so that they are fully aware of the switch off and what they should do.

Mr Ndwigah said Kenya has decided to migrate region by region adding that the switch off started with Kenya and is expected to roll out to the rest of the region.

And Zambia’s delegation team leader Mwansa Kapeya said Zambia has a lot to learn from countries such as Kenya which has made progress in digital migration.

Mr Kapeya said Zambia will use the lessons learnt from the two countries to see how best it will roll out the digital programme.

Zambia, like other countries in Africa is in the process of changing the terrestrial television broadcasting platform from analogue to digital

The Zambian government has indicated that it will partially migrate this year from analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting.

Information Permanent Secretary Amos Malupenga has indicated that Zambia is targeting the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) deadline of June 17, 2015 to fully migrate from analogue to digital.

The Zambian delegation on digital migration  includes, National Taskforce Chairperson Sydney Mupeta, Director for Press and Planning at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services Beaton Kaluba, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Director of Engineering Malolela Lusambo and Zambia Information and Communication Authority (ZICTA) Director of Information and Technology Patrick Mutimushi.