About Us

For decades, the Catholic Church in Nigeria has desired to reach out to its members and the vast, diverse population of over 170 million people in Nigeria, through the Television network, which is an irresistibly attractive and effective medium for evangelization. To actualize this desire, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja and some dioceses within Nigeria have been producing and airing programmes on Federal, State and Private television stations to their local communities. However, the need for a national coverage of Church activities and evangelization of the population of Nigeria had not been achieved.

The quest and desire to utilize a television broadcast network nationwide, to promote and propagate Catholic programmes and activities, as well as build a better and godly society, received a happy and encouraging boost in 2009. It came through an invitation by the chairman/CEO of a private national television company DAAR Communications Plc, (operators of Africa Independent Television AIT), Chief Raymond Dokpesi to John Cardinal Onaiyekan Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, to use one of DAARSAT channels for evangelization.

As an immediate and short term response to the opportunity offered by DAARSAT, John Cardinal Onaiyekancharged the Communications Department of the Archdiocese to take up the offer and ensure that the Catholic Church had an effective presence on television. This project also received the approval of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN).^[2] This informed the establishment of a capital intensive yet highly desirous Communications Ministry through television: THE CATHOLIC TELEVISION OF NIGERIA (CTV). The project took off with the broadcast of a fifteen-minute devotional programme titled “A Light For The Nation” at 05.45am on January 1, 2010, on Africa Independent Television.