Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, has described as misleading, media reports that the Chinese government has made available the funding necessary to complete the national digital terrestrial transmission project.

The Business and Financial Times newspaper Wednesday reported that the “Chinese government has approved and signed the long-awaited loan agreement with the government of Ghana, paving the way for Ghana to complete its national digital terrestrial transmission project.”

According to the paper, “The government of Ghana is now expected to countersign the loan agreement and submit it to Parliament for ratification within the next few weeks, as any further delay will affect the country’s race to meet the international deadline of June 17, 2015 for all countries to migrate their broadcasting networks from analogue to digital.

“Although the loan financing agreement, which has been a major hurdle in the digital switchover efforts, has been cleared, Ghana will most likely miss the international deadline set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as the main contractor and supplier of the digital terrestrial equipment, Star Communication Network Technology (StarTimes) sets to fully finish the main capital cities by July, 2015.

“According to the ITU, any country that fails to meet the deadline will not receive any protection from the Union should any country interfere in its broadcasting space.

“Ghana’s attempt at digitalising its broadcasting networks is estimated to cost the country about US$95million, and lack of funding for the time-bound project is causing uneasiness in government circles and among broadcasting firms and consumers.

“The government fixed a self-imposed deadline of December 2014 to complete migration from analogue to digital but failed to meet it, and is set to miss the global deadline too.”

But in a post on his Facebook wall, the Communications Minister, whose ministry has supervisory jurisdiction over the migration process, said, “Note that the Chinese Government has not communicated any decision on funding the digital migration process to the Government of Ghana. Your story is at best misleading and inappropriate.”