This is  a frontal dislocation – the Federal Government of Nigeria has directed two PayTv platforms – GoTv and Startimes – to migrate their signals from self-carrying to any of the two licensed FreeTv signal distributors.  Yes, according to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja, the directive was in line with the Digital Switch Over (DSO) process: “We have directed National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to ask Gotv and Startimes to go to either Pinnacle or ITS. They cannot carry their signals and that is the only way the licensed signal distributors can survive.’’

News Agency of Nigeria broke the news. It would be interesting to know if GoTv and Startimes have licenses also, now that their businesses would morph to make sure other businesses thrive! This is simply license positioning, and using that for a company which was built for the center of the smiling curve to find opportunities at the edges, without improving any market element at demand-supply interface.

Nigeria is a very interesting country – people get licenses to create moats, just as Dangote Refinery is now making a case that only those with refining licenses should be allowed to import petrol into Nigeria. So, magically, get a crude refinery license in Nigeria and become an importer of fuel (petrol). And the alpha follows.

Punch had reported that Dangote Group has desired  for inclusion in the Petroleum Industry Bill a requirement that the license to import petroleum products should be given only to companies with active refining licenses. The company does think that by having that requirement, companies will invest in local refining business.

But that is a very tough one since some people can actually get licenses just for the rights to import fuel. I mean, if Dangote Refinery thinks that will stop traders, they would be shocked. As things stand, the House of Representatives  is investigating the alleged missing of “5.2 million barrels of crude oil allocated to local refineries under the Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) – DSDP allows sales of crude oil to refiners, who will in turn supply the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) with an equivalent worth of petroleum products’, Premium Times reports.

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The first phase of the rollout had covered the Federal Capital Territory and the five states of Plateau, Kaduna, Kwara, Osun and Enugu. According to the minister, the laws of the land recognises a single frequency network that is being operated by two licensed signal distributors – Integrated Television Services (ITS) and Pinnacle Communications. He said the two PayTv – Startimes and GoTv – which are currently carrying their respective signals, are in negation of the law and must migrate to any of the licensed signal distributors of their choice.

The minister gave an assurance that with the approval of N9.4 billion by the Federal Government and the setting up of a 14-member ministerial task force to drive the DSO process the remaining 31 states would be successfully and effectively covered.

He said the DSO would enable Nigerians have the opportunity to have choices of many TV stations as well as have access to quality pictures and programmes with little annual cost and no monthly subscription.

Mr Mohammed said the plan for every state the DSO is being rolled out is to cover at least 70 per cent of population coverage with Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) while the remaining areas would be covered by Direct To Home (DTH).

He pledged that no part of the country would be left out without DSO signal before the final Analogue Switch Off

Speaking on contents on the FreeTv platform, the minister said the government would set up Local Content Development Fund to assist talented young artists and content developers as well as enable budding stations to thrive.

He said part of the fund would also be used to assist veteran actors and notable celebrities to procure special licenses to either have their own channels or programmes.

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By 2030, 80% of richest Nigerians would have made money from technology. We will also see a shift of wealth concentrated in the age bracket of 35-55 years. Nigeria is having its finest cambrian moment on the formation of companies. The last time we were this bold, on entrepreneurial capitalism, was in the early 1990s when some of Nigeria’s current  leading banks were established.

The 1990s gave us the new generation banks. The 2000s brought voice telephony. The 2010s ushered mobile internet. The 2020s would deliver the era of application utility across industry sectors and market territories.

Natively-inspired homegrown physical security business model will become one of the fastest growing sectors from Q1 2022  – and that will remain for the decade.  Today, very few are looking at that nexus. But if you check carefully, it is a latent opportunity which has to be unlocked. But it must be done differently, in a scalable form, from what we have in the market now. Yes, Nigeria’s security paralysis is now a huge friction – and a business opportunity.

From education to healthcare, from financial services to logistics, and beyond, new domains will emerge! India’s edtech Byju’s has a valuation of $13 billion. Nigeria will experience such as alternative schools begin to dislocate public ones. Get ready for the promises.

Ed-tech leader Byju’s has raised Rs 3,328 crore (about $460 million) as part of its ongoing Series F round, led by MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings LP and participation from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital, among other investors. The investment values the Bengaluru-based company at a little over $13 billion, regulatory filings showed

Remember him? He was the former minister in Nigeria who called Covid-19 vaccine “evil”. He boldly noted that Bill Gates was planning to use Nigerians as “Guinea pigs” through the vaccines. He had written: “WHO are set to begin Covid19 vaccine trials in our country. EVIL! Not only have our people been turned into Guinea pigs to test Gates’ killer vaccine but our leaders are also passing a law which will make the use of that evil vaccine compulsory. What a mess! I weep for Nigeria.”

But what an irony? Nigeria has about 210 million people but someone he is among the 600k lucky Nigerians to have gotten the “evil” vaccine after his assault on science and technology. Hope he would be decent enough to send Buhari a Thank You card for not listening to his nonsense.

Fellow citizens, do not allow any politician to deceive you. I saw a Republican state senator who opposed the jab here in line to help his mother get one. Why he criticizes it on TV, and yet works to help his mother to get one is all POLITICS! Unfortunately, many get trapped.

Femi Fani-Kayode is a fellow citizen. He has served his nation. But next time, he needs to show class  on what he tweets because some may go astray reading him! We can disagree in Nigeria but certain things should be off politics!