By Babajide Okeowo
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A few years ago during a Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg, South Africa, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that the Chinese government would implement satellite TV programs for 10 thousand African villages and Nigeria would get 1,000 of the allocation, it was news well received by the Nigerian Government.
Fast forward to 2017, StarTimes, the contractor executing the project commissioned the pilot phase of the project in Hulumi Village, a suburb of the Federal Capital City, FCT by installing 20 Satellite TV Dish, Solar Powered Projector TV for a communal viewing center and some TV sets, all maintenance free to bring civilisation closer to the rural dwellers.
Almost two years after the installation, the District Head of the Village, Dimas Daniel is full of appreciation to the Chinese Government while enumerating the impact the introduction to the digital space has had on the members of Hulumi Community.
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In his words, a lot of things have changed among our people. “First of all, we thank the Chinese Government and StarTimes for this project. The people of this community are more informed that they were many years before the installation was done. In the area of personal development, language speaking, home improvement, cooking, sports activities, farming and even how we dress sometimes. People are generally happy each time there is electricity and they have the chance to watch TV. I can say that this project has changed the life of our people positively more than we ever expected when the project was launched in 2017. Everybody is pleased with it, including children, women, men and even myself” he said.
He went on to further reveal that his people love watching the foreign channels the most and this has introduced them to a culture different from theirs.
“My people love the foreign channels most especially. You know because many of them are now beginning to see foreigners on TV more than ever before. They now have access to learn how things are being done in the other countries thereby adding to the knowledge they already have. When I interact with my people, I know that they enjoy watching foreign channels, it makes them very happy and knowledgeable. The information they get from these foreign channels is so much that it helps them improve their education. Now when they are being taught some things in school, it is not strange to them because they may have seen it on TV before the class. We have noticed this among our children, it is helping them in their education and all the parents are very happy to see their child doing better” he said.
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He, however, calls for improvement in the quality of signal after a downpour while also calling for more infrastructures to improve the quality of life they enjoy.
“Sometimes when it rains heavily with so much wind, the satellite dish may shift and the signal will be lost. What we do in this situation is that we have to call somebody in the StarTimes office to assist us in making it work. Apart from this, there is nothing else. But I also I want to ask for more support in terms of helping our communities with jobs and other things to improve the health of our people and the living conditions. If we get better health care, a better structure in our primary school where the children are learning and better electricity in this community things would be better” he added.
Apart from the entertainment value, CEO, Startimes Nigeria, Mr. Justin Zhang, said the project also led to the creation of jobs for African countries, stating that “Nigerians from various villages have been trained on how to recharge, operate and provide the required maintenance support for all the products installed” he added.