Tunde Bakare
Nigeria is set to acquire and launch two communication satellites.
This is part of Governments plan to replace Nigeria’s communication satellite in orbital space, known as NigComSat 1R, which was launched in 2011.
NigComSat 1R satellite, which has over 15 years lifespan, is expected to expire in 2028, hence the need for urgent replacement of the only communication satellite belonging to Nigeria in orbital space.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NIGCOMSAT Ltd, Mrs. Jane Egerton-Idehen, disclosed this in Lagos, to announce the 20-year anniversary of NIGCOMSAT and its two- year anniversary in venturing into space technology.
She explained that the two satellites would be acquired before 2028, but would be launched into space in 2028 and 2029, respectively.
According to her, “NIGCOMSAT has received approval from the federal government to begin the process of acquiring and launching two new communication satellites for Nigeria, to replace the existing NigComSat 1R that will soon expire. We are grateful to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the approval and for his interest in investing in national infrastructure such as communication satellites for Nigeria. We are currently in the process of acquiring the two satellites and get them ready for launch in 2018 and 2019.”
She spoke about the achievements of NIGCOMSAT in the last 20 years and its commitment to launch another communication satellite into orbit.
“In the next phase of acquiring communication satellites, our focus will not just be on Nigeria alone. It will cut across sub-Saharan Africa because we want to offer services to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and this will help us to advance our market coverage to have tier two and tier three markets. So tier one is Nigeria. Tier two markets are West Africa, and tier three will be landlocked countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We want to support them because most of them don’t have satellite in orbit and they depend on Nigeria for communication satellite services. It is a commercial business that will generate more money for Nigeria,” Egerton-Idehen said.
Speaking about the importance of communication satellites to Nigeria, Egerton-Idehen said: “There are very few countries in the world that have orbital slots to provide satellite services because space is a limited resource. So there are few slots in the sky and every country cannot have a slot. Nigeria has three orbital slots, which demand maintenance. It is not a project for the faint-hearted. It is a complicated global project with global dynamics.”
According to her, NIGCOMSAT has commenced the process of acquiring the satellite.
“These are infrastructure projects, and they are capital-intensive, and we have commenced the process of acquiring the satellites. Although the result is not going to be immediate, because it takes about 13 months to build a new satellite, the gains are massive. We are happy we made the request for quotation some years back, and that part has been finalised.
“We had a financial workshop recently, where we discussed funding of the two new satellites. The idea is to fund them and procure them at the same time. So the process to acquire them is at the same time,” Egerton-Idehen further said.