Chinese media company, StarTimes, says it has invested $220m in Nigeria since it started operation in the country in 2010.
The Managing Director of the company, Mr David Zhang, said this at the celebration of 2019 Chinese Film Week in Abuja.
Zhang said that the company had also acquired about four million subscribers through its Joint Venture with the Nigerian Television Authority.
He said, “So far, we have invested a total of $220m in Nigeria, developed a network of nearly 3,000 distributors in the country, as well as developed around four million subscribers.
“We are actively involved in corporate social responsibility and have paid a total of $25m in tax, recruited more than 1,000 local staff, 97 per cent of whom are Nigerians, and indirectly employed tens of thousands of people in various fields such as marketing, technology, accounting, logistics and customer services.
“We have made our due contributions to the popularisation of digital TV and economic development in Nigeria.
“Furthermore, we keep strengthening our content platform. We have done a huge investment in football content. Millions of Nigerian households enjoyed all 64 matches of the World Cup live broadcasts a few months ago through our DTV platform or OTT platform with only N1,300, which was incredible before.”
On the Chinese promise to provide 10,000 villages in Africa with digital television, Zhang said the project being implemented by Star Times has completed the installation in 1,000 locations and 20,000 households in Nigeria.
Currently, he added, each family could choose between 100 pay-TV channels and two free channels, and each community institutions could watch 20 free international and local channels.
Speaking on the Chinese Film Week, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Culture, Mrs Grace Gekpe, said that the cooperation between Nigeria and China had been growing stronger in the last 50 years.
Gekpe who was represented by Mrs. Ugochi Akudo said the proposed joint film week between Nigeria and China would be hosted in both countries.
