Business
We’ve invested $220million in Nigeria– Startimes Boss
Aminat Isah
The Chief Executive Officer of Startimes Nigeria, David Zhang, has disclosed that Startimes has invested a total sum of USD220 million in Nigeria.
This, he said will further deepen Nigeria-China relationship, ROYAL NEWS reports.
Zhang disclosed this at the 2019 China Film Festival in Abuja on Saturday.
He noted that the company, along with its investment has equally developed a network of nearly 3,000 distributors in the country, as well as about four million subscribers.
According to him, “We are actively involved in Corporate Social Responsibility and paid a total of USD25 million in tax, recruited more than 1,000 local staff, 97 percent of whom are Nigerians, and indirectly employed tens of thousands of people in various fields such as marketing, technology, accounting, logistics and customer services.
“The contributions of Startimes to the popularization of digital TV and economic development in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized as it project “Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages” is one of the corporate initiatives for China and Africa, which was proposed by Chinese President, Xi Jinping, at the Johannesburg Summit of the FOCAC in 2015.
A project which he explained is aimed at enabling African families in rural areas to have access to the digital signal with high-quality images and rich TV programs, promoting cultural exchanges and the relationship between China and the African people.
” Startimes is responsible for implementing the Digital Village Project and is about to begin with 1,000 villages in Nigeria, donating 20,000 decoders, 3,000 sets of solar energy products, 2,000 projector TV sets and 1,000 Digital TV sets built-in Combo decoder. Up to now, We have completed the installation of all 1,000 villages, 20,000 house holders and 300 community institutions.
“Currently, each family can choose between 100 pay-tv channels and two free channels, and each community institutions can watch 20 free international and local channels. We have received full support from the Ministry of Information and Culture of Nigeria and the department of State Budget Management.
“Throughout the project, we also felt the passion of the Nigerian and the strong desire of the children in the village to acquire knowledge and learn more information.
” We can say, 10 thousand village project is not only an aid projects, it is more like a bridge to communicate with each other to understand the people of China and Nigeria,” said Zhang
He expressed confidence that the showcase of the best Chinese Movies will motivate deeper interactions between China and Nigeria, and definitely promote the cooperation in film and TV industry between the two countries.
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