Zinox Group has distanced its self from the N34 billion paid by MTN to the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) which was allegedly shared by officials of the NBC and other individuals.
Chris Eze Ozims serves as Company Secretary and Legal Adviser, Zinox told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that his company was shocked to read from Vanguard Newspapers, a national daily that Zinox was one of the companies NBC paid cash.
“For the avoidance of doubts, Zinox was not paid a kobo by the NBC” he stated.
According to him, Zinox was one of the companies that jostled for the contract to manufacture set-top boxes and was duly prequalified after paying the necessary fees.
A set-top box is device that enables a television set to become a user interface to the Internet and also enables a television set to receive and decode digital television (DTV) broadcasts.
“Zinox was not paid a kobo by the NBC. We are indeed shocked to read from Vanguard Newspapers that Zinox Technologies was one of the companies the NBC paid cash to.
“We wish to make it clear that till date, we are yet to receive a kobo from the NBC for duly approved contracts which we executed. As a strong technology company with credible capacity and advanced competencies, we had participated in a bid process for the supply of Set-up boxes for the digital rollover which we won and paid N50 million to the NBC for the license. We also bid for and were awarded a contract to supply 150,000 units of the boxes.
“Till date, a single kobo has not been released to us for the supply of the items. The Federal Government of Nigeria, the NBC and even the EFCC are fully aware of this. It is, therefore, embarrassing to the Management of the company and our local and global partners to have our names linked to any breach of due process at the NBC,” he noted.
Noting that the company will not hesitate to consider legal avenues of seeking redress for the malicious and unsubstantiated claims, Ozims reaffirmed the company’s commitment to the growth and development of the Nigerian ICT sector as well as the democratization of access to information, jobs and wealth creation for millions of Nigerians through its knowledge democracy platforms.
