Government has disclosed that Zambia is not ready to meet the Southern African Development Community (SADC) deadline of 31st December 2013 on digital migration.
Information and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary Amos Malupenga said Zambia will however meet the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) deadline of June 2015.
Mr. Malupenga said disclosed this today when he appeared before the parliamentary committee on Information and Broadcasting which was looking at the country’s preparedness to switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting together with other SADC countries this year.
He said the country will this year only manage to partially migrate due to financial challenges.
He submitted to the parliamentary committee that Zambia will this year partially migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting but will ensure that it meets the ITU deadline on digital migration which falls on June 17, 2015.
The Permanent Secretary however noted that the failure to fully migrate from analogue to digital this year has no negative repercussions on consumers as the two systems, analogue and digital, will run side by side up to 2015 which is the deadline for the whole world to switch over.
Mr. Malupenga disclosed that this year, government has allocated KR25 million for the digital migration processes which will include the upgrading of transmitters and other relevant infrastructure throughout the country.
He explained that the whole digital migration process requires colossal sums of money which he said the Ministry of Finance was tasked by Cabinet to find.
Mr. Malupenga further said once the process was done, even remote areas where there was currently no radio and television signals, would be covered because of new technologies that will come along with the switchover.
Meanwhile, Mr. Malupenga has called on the media to partner with his ministry in sensitising the public on digital migration.
Mr. Malupenga’s appeal came after Mbabala Member of Parliament (MP) Ephraim Belemu observed that members of the public, including some MPs and members of the taskforce on digital migration, had little knowledge on system.
He said the media and some members of the taskforce were not doing enough to enlighten the public on the switchover.
According to the SADC roadmap for digital broadcasting migration, all member countries were supposed to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting on 31st December 2013.
But according to the International Telecommunications Union, an agency of the UN spearheading communications technology development in the developing world, the analogue signal will be switched off in June 2015, a deadline the Zambian government has pledged to meet without fail.
The Permanent Secretary was accompanied to parliament Zambia News and Information Services Director Patrick Lungu, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation Director General Chibamba Kanyama, the incoming chairperson of the taskforce on Digital Migration Sydney Mupeta and his predecessor Luwani Soko and other senior officers in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services.
ZANIS
“Zambia fails to meet SADC guideline” and not “Zambia fails to meet SADC deadline”. SAC cannot give a deadline ( but only a guide) to any country as these sovereign Member States
31st December 2013 sounds more like a deadline to me that a “guideline”. Iyi article ili mu chizungu ka.
Yeah,zambia can’t meet the deadline because its led by folks who are only interested in arresting opposition and giving useless letters to summon an ex president.No serious work of nation building other than vengeful politics.
Hold you fire, that has little to do with politics. Zambia is not the only country in the SADC region that has failed to meet the digital migration deadline but has failed South Africa too. Both countries among the rest that are now targeting the June 2015 deadline. You really have no confidence in your country, its leadership and/or have little knowledge of what is happening regionary in the ICT industry.
What do you expect when you have a PS who has a certificate in journalism. Come 2015, he will give another excuse
Amos Malupenga does not know what he need to work for, he always complain and never achieve, look at zambia watchdog, the new paper with full of criticism, and insulting to the presidents, he was suppose to make sure that the watchdog has been shut down, this website , shame, i don’t think there are people buy its news papers.
Watchdog? they dont print newspaper, its online kwasila!!!!
Digital migration requires more manpower to succeed. If the 2015 time line also remains theoretical, then the technological divide will become wider. In explaining failure beating about the bush is the wrong thing to do. Was it money? was engineer? Was it supplier? That is the way to solve this digital migration challenge.
Why do we always try to abide by deadlines set by entities or global bodies? We need to do our own introspective analyses and set internal deadlines mitigated against what the dictates of these bodies. I do not believe, for example, that 2030 is a deadline that everyone must abide by. It must depend on the realities of a country’s dynamics and capacity…
@Kalok. Zambia is part of the global village and cannot do things in isolation.
iwe mudala in 2015 nothing but digital signals will be transmitted.
I am very sure Zambia will be last to migrate because our priority is very different. They are no consequences in missing deadlines in Zambia, look at the constitution making process, those who were born when the process started are now grown up boys/girls; am not looking at the current constitution disaster in PF but from the time MMD started playing with our minds over the matter… This is a culture that has been cultivated to an extent that we are comfortable to let the deadline fall through our fingers. SHAME
preach!!sema!!walasa!!deadlines and zambians that is a message that has touched my heart..we are a country of procrastinators…i thought i had the problem kanshi its becoz i am zambian..please i rebuke the phrase zambian time!!!
you can’t meet such deadlines when you are busy fighting opposition parties..change your plan if you have any pf..!
eee digital migration for what?for who? lets just spend our money on things that are close to our hearts like bye-elections!
This is the same minister who moved all over the world with his entourage and today he wants to say there are no funds??? I dont like this man at all, this is the price Zambia is getting. post newspaper and digital migration are two different thngs iwe malupenga. Just go back to the Post before it collapses completely, u have limited time.
Please Guys talk about the issue which is here not bringing in politics or other personal issues on serious topics thats why we are failing to develop so fast.
SAD PART IS PRIVATE TV STATIONS ARE NOT BEING ALLOWED BY GRZ TO BUY DIGITAL TRANSMITTERS TO MOVE THERE STATIONS INTO DIGITAL AS GRZ WANTS EVERYBODY IN THE PRIVATE TO ONLY GET SIGNAL FROM ZNBC. SO IT IS NOT ZAMBIA THAT HAS FAILED BUT ZNBC.
One could assume the next step is to outline the challenges faced and engage the right private sector partnerships required to facilitate the migration. We are part of a global change. Even BBC with all its resources appealed for more time after winning the opportunity to lead the change.
All that globe trotting yielded nothing Mr Malupenga,i knew it was all about allowances.I hate it when i watch digital here and when in Zambia i switch to analogue,hope it has no effects on my eyes.Digital is more like HD.
Zambia is not the only country which has difficulties with the SADC deadline of 31st December 2013. Namibia is working towards meeting the ITU deadline of June 2015; South Africa, same. There are many more priority issues to be delt with than pour all our resources into meeting the SADC target when we can make the change over with the rest of the world by June 2015!
do you tell your kids to come last in there class?
u just know how to correct english, what do you have(wealth) despite learning highly. the bazungu collected all the money& wealth& left you starving with excellent english. mind you its a foreign language.lets get sense¬ lecturing ba nyama imwe. let be proud with our own language.