To re-launch satellite in December
NIGERIA spends over N67 billion ($450 million) to import foreign bandwidth and another N15 billion ($100) million for its services yearly owing to the inadequacy of facilities in the country.
Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Okon Ewa, who revealed this in Abuja yesterday at the pre-launch of NigComsat's stakeholders' conference, said the re-launch of the de-orbited satellite would hold in December this year.
Ewa said the re-launch of the satellite would reduce drastically the capital flight on the importation of bandwidth from Europe and America to expand Internet facilities, telephony and broadcasting in the country.
According to him, with the launch of Nigerian-owned communication satellites, the revenue made from the country on bandwidth by other nations would be retained in Nigeria and used for its development.
He explained: "This will reduce our over-dependence on oil and create additional revenue streams for the nation."
Represented by the Director of Information Technology in the ministry, Mr. Abdulkareem Jimoh, he said the forum would brainstorm on "the relevance of satellite communications to national development and bring to light how it can resolve our difficult topographical terrain and the vulnerability of other solutions to theft, vandalism and natural disaster."
NigComSat-1R, being built by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), is the replacement satellite for NigComSat-1, which failed in orbit in 2008 due to anomaly in its south solar array.
According to Ewa, the shortage of bandwidth, which gave rise to its mass importation, could only be addressed through the deployment of communications satellites to meet Nigeria's bandwidth needs.
He said: "The African continent is currently experiencing huge demands for bandwidth as it attempts to make a shift towards an information society. In fact, sub-Saharan Africa alone contains 10 per cent of the world's population, but only 0.2 per cent of the world's one billion telephone lines.
"Investors should support the initiative of developing the African continent through communications satellites by investing in the replacement satellite, NigComSat-1R and the back-up satellites, the NigComSat 2 and 3.
"With the launch of the replacement satellite, there will be opportunities for new business development and growth in Africa. One of the socio-economic benefits will be youth empowerment through business outsourcing as obtains in Asian countries now.
"This will translate to new sources of employment and wealth creation for Nigerians. Satellite technology affects every aspect of our lives through e-banking, e-governance, telecommunications, broadcasting, e-commerce and many more."
Former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, said from observations, Nigerian companies are paying relatively high bandwidth charges for satellite links to enable long distance transmission.
Ndukwe, who was keynote speaker at the event, said the high charges have continued to prevail in spite of the fact that Nigerian businesses represent over 60 per cent of the African business portfolio.
He said broadband growth supports countries' Gross Domestic Product (GDP), stressing that satellite communications, if adequately managed for broad bandwidth, could bring about stable economic growth.
He said: "Many countries with high broadband penetration now got there by encouraging and providing incentives for widespread broadband deployments."
Ndukwe implored the stakeholders to ensure the formulation of the broadband policy for the country to meet up with the global standards and maintain its position on the global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) league.
The Chief Executive Officer, NigComSat Limited, Dr. Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, said the government had given the outfit the mandate to launch back-up satellites to prevent any unforeseen situation in the future.
He said besides the $450 million spent yearly on bandwidth, Nigeria expends over $100 million on other satellite services such as distribution and maintenance.
The back-up satellites will be launched in December 2012.
The Guardian