Northern Region gets first private TV station

The first private television station in the north, Discovery TV, has commenced test transmission on the multi-TV channel 18 and other free-to-air digit-box.

The station, with its headquarters in Tamale in the Northern Region, is one of the many investments of the Discovery International Group of Companies (DIGC), Ghana, which sought to among other things market the investment opportunities of the three northern regions to prospective investors.

Philip Assibit Akpeena, Group Chairman of Discovery in an interview said the three northern regions had been starved with vital information, hence the need to setup the Discovery TV to discover the potentials of the people and the area.

He said a lot of businesses, especially in the Tamale Metropolis were booming but the bureaucracies and time involved to advertise on the TV stations outside the region was de-motivating while there were limited opportunities for traditional and other opinion leaders to speak on issues of national importance.

Mr Akpeena also mentioned that what spurred him on to setup the TV station was to sustain the fast development of the region, advance the skill development, create employment and reduce poverty.

'As a company we recognize that communication was fused to development and there is the existence of radio and print leaving the television so we thought it wise to breach that gap,' he emphasized.

Mr Akpeena said the television station will serve as a platform to promote peace and unity to propel the development of the region.

He described the north as a safe haven for business investment, which needed a tool such as television to showcase the potentials in the region to attract more investments to improve the economy.

Mr Akpeena said the north had all the potentials to become the food basket of the country due to its vast lands for maize, rice, sorghum, sugar cane, groundnuts and other crop cultivation but what was needed was support for farmers.

He urged people in the region to support the various interventions by private and government aimed at improving the livelihood of the people.

'Part of our problems in this country is the 'pull him down' syndrome, instead of supporting a worthy initiative people rather gossip and level unfounded allegations against people,' he emphasized.

GNA