Greg Odogwu
Nigeria truly entered the Space Age with the launch of her communication satellite, NigComSat-1, in 2007. Unfortunately, it was lost in orbit; but was re-launched in 2011.
At the NigComSat-1R launch, most Nigerians were still sceptical about the operations or benefits of satellite technology. However, in the last five years, it has been able to contribute meaningfully to Nigeria’s rating as a global Information and Communications Technology hub. Remarkably, it has assisted in increasing telephone and Internet penetration in the country apart from other strategic and vital operations it was deployed to handle.
Satellite operations are mostly classified activities and hence the citizens who are not privy to the services or contributions of NigComSat-1R to national development could be forgiven. The satellite was designed and built with a 15-year lifespan; we have already spent five out of the 15 years so the questions begging for answers are, what has the satellite offered Nigeria in the last five years and what do we expect in the next 10 years before it comes to the end of its life cycle?
In the last five years, NigComSat-1R was able to connect and provide qualitative services for the Nigerian military and the Presidency, especially in the battle against insurgency.
Today, the satellite is providing vital services to 79 federal and state universities while 56 Colleges of Education are also hooked on NigComSat-1R. This is by no means a small feat, considering the huge amount of foreign exchange spent on bandwidth and Internet connections by the schools and educational institutes before now.
Another important benefit which the satellite has brought to bear on Nigeria is the opportunity for interactive distant learning. The satellite has the capacity to transmit live video broadcasts of lessons to schools and can enable learners in rural and remote areas interact with instructors in far-flung locations.
Other benefits which make the satellite stand out and make it the best option for any government agency or corporation in Nigeria or Africa, include rural connectivity, cost effectiveness, global availability, superior reliability and superior performance. NigComSat-1R is used for broadcast applications like Direct-to-home television; for two-way IP networks in its speed, uniformity and end-to-end applications.
However, it has not always been a lullaby for the project. The biggest challenge facing it is the non-acceptability of its efficacy by government organisations. There is a grievous irony here. The government spent taxpayers’ money in designing, building, launching and servicing the satellite but its agencies and departments have refused to invest or patronise the services of the satellite.
The argument advanced most times by government organisations on why they cannot patronise the satellite ranges from lack of back-up to reliability. Is it the USA or China that will come and invest in the back-up of a Nigerian satellite?
Today, most government organisations are going abroad to acquire or negotiate for satellite broadband, bandwidth, images, data or services without recourse to what NigComSat-1R can offer. One then wonders, is there any government office in Nigeria today better positioned than NigComSat-1R to acquire or negotiate satellite business on behalf of Nigeria?
Recently, there were celebrations across the country about the digital switch over for television stations. A purely satellite-based service, but NigComSat-1R was not involved in this huge national programme. Interestingly, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, explained that his ministry did not patronise NIGCOMSAT because it had no backup.
He said, “The process of digitalisation is unstoppable and irreversible; it’s not a matter of choice. If we do not follow the world to digitalise and meet the June 2017 target, it means our telephones, televisions and radios would not be free from interference. When the White Paper on utilisation came out, the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, the digital team set up by the government, paid a visit to the Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited and explained to them how ready they were to patronise them. But unfortunately, as we speak today, NIGCOMSAT has no redundancy. In other words, they have no back-up. If we sign with them and for any reason the satellite goes down, it means we cannot transmit. ”
This is an interesting stuff! I do not think any country in recession can afford to waste any opportunity to patronise its own industry, in order to spread the limited funds available. At all cost. Why would ours be different?
While everybody laments about capital flight, it is interesting to note that other viable government entities like the Nigeria Television Authority, which prides itself as Africa’s largest network, is also using other foreign based satellites in the discharge of its mandate; totally forgetting our multibillion naira satellite which was built and designed with footprint in West Africa and configured to offer better Direct-to-Home services in the region.
It is time to tell ourselves the hard truth. We are a nation given to contract, rent-seeking and percentage peddling. We must turn back from this path to Doomsland. It has become imperative for government to make some deliberate investments to back up our satellite.
Recently, our own NigComSat-1R was selected from among other satellites across the globe to provide In-Orbit Test and Carrier Spectrum Monitoring Services for Belintersat-1 Satellite. Belintersat-1 is a communication satellite owned by the Government of Belarus. NigComSat-1R is also expected to provide CSM services to monitor the performance of Belintersat-1 and transmit the data in real-time to Belarus for the life of the satellite.
This is a big feat for Nigeria and it clearly shows that NIGCOMSAT and indeed Nigeria has developed the capacity to provide high technical services in the satellite communication industry, in addition to its traditional services of transponder leasing, broadband services, enterprise solutions, secured communications and solutions amongst others, over Nigeria and other African countries such as Gabon and Côte d’Ivoire.
Prof. Turner Isoun, former Minister of Science and Technology, whose ministry supervised the designing and launching of the satellite, had once said that Nigeria must develop a management strategy similar to what obtains at the Nigeria LNG for NigComSat. This according to him will give government about 49 per cent of the share holding and the private sector controlling the remaining 51 per cent.
“For this to happen government must invest in the satellite and allow active participation of the private sector otherwise, we may end up selling NigComSat as scrap as was done to NITEL,” he emphasised.
Isoun’s recommendation was similar to that made by the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology after an investigative hearing on the activities and operations of NigComSat Ltd. in 2009. The committee in its report recommended that NigComSat should as a matter of urgency, be privatised and that government should commence the building of NigComSat-2 and 3 to serve as back-up if the country wanted to remain relevant in the satellite business.
Therefore, in the spirit of local content that the federal government preaches, it is high time the government deploys the same policy framework that mandated all ministries, departments and agencies to patronise Galaxy Backbone, to NigComSat-1R; to ensure that no government organisation subscribes to other satellites what NigComSat-1R has the ability and potential to do. That way the government can reduce the huge capital flight from the country annually in the name of buying satellites services.
Government must put its foot down and stamp out unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks fuelled by inter-agency rivalry that has made it impossible for Nigerians to appreciate the contributions of NigComSat-1R to national development.
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