Innoson Group has partnered with a number of Chinese investors to infuse $1 billion into Nigeria’s IT sector.
This money will be used to manufacture set-top boxes for Nigeria’s Digital Switchover project, build IT solutions for the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and install CCTV cameras across the country.
Innoson is a local manufacturer of automobiles – the first one in Nigeria, actually – and it looks like they have plans to launch into IT and multimedia. According to ThisDay, the company hopes to launch a Satellite Digital TV operation and other services with this partnership.
They are partnering with the Chinese Foreign Investment Group which is led by Liu Baoju (Chairman of Shandong Broadcasting Group and Shandong Cable Interactive Service Ltd) and Huang Gang (Senior Vice President of Inspur Group). Shandong Broadcasting Group is a major TV operator in China, while Inspur Group is China’s leading global data centre and cloud computing solutions provider.
According to the Public Relations and Media Assistant of the Innoson Group, Cornel Osigwe, “This foreign investment is coming at a time when Nigeria is in dire need of foreign investors to boost the economy.”
Out of the $1 billion to be invested, $300 million will go into local production of 5 to 8 million set-top boxes by Innoson Group to help Nigeria meet her Digital Switchover (DSO) deadline of June 2017. A further $100 million will be invested to enable Innoson establish DTH (Direct-To-Home) Digital BING Television stations across Nigeria.
Negotiations are still ongoing for what the remaining $600 million will be used for but so far it’s been agreed that the money will go into the deployment of CCTV cameras to support Nigeria’s e-policing efforts; an IT solution to be used by the FIRS and other tax agencies for stress-free tax collection; and an E-education IT solutions complete with data centers across all Federal Universities and Polytechnics in Nigeria.
It is expected that the investment will create jobs over 5000 jobs in the Innoson Group set-top box manufacturing plant and another 2000 jobs at its television operations across Nigeria.
