- The new management of the Nigerian Communications Satellite company is making moves to get the country’s satellite fully utilized after being underutilized for several years.
- These moves may, however, be coming late as the satellite has only 3 years left to complete its lifespan.
- NIGCOMSAT will also need to tackle the issues that have led to Nigerian telecom operators abandoning their service to source for satellite services outside the country.
Recent activities of the newly appointed Managing Director of the Nigerian Communications Satellite, Jane Nkechi Egerton-Idehen suggested that the country now wants to put its communication satellite to good use after being underutilized over the last 12 years.
This may, however, be coming a little late as the 12-year-old NigComSat-1R satellite is to expire in the next 3 years. The satellite which has 15 years lifespan was launched in 2011 and is to reach its complete lifespan in 2026.
The satellite was launched with the hope that it would save Nigeria billions in foreign exchange by providing service for Nigerian telecom operators and broadcast stations.
It was also expected to help boost the country’s broadband penetration, but all has been a mirage since its launch as many businesses, including government agencies like the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, have shunned the satellite over the years.
Egerton-Idehen’s revival talks
While the industry is awaiting her actions, the newly appointed CEO of the satellite company, Egerton-Idehen has been sharing what she described as her vision to transform the company.
According to her, NIGCOMSAT is now better positioned than ever to provide the nation with reliable internet services that will stimulate innovation and other advancements in the technology industry.
Talking tough during her maiden tour of the company’s facilities in Lagos, she boasted that NigComSat will double up on the ways it used to deliver services to the ICT sector, in order to match the aspirations of the present government on digital economy.
She assured that the satellite company would help the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy to build the necessary infrastructure that will fasten the technological growth of the country.
Egerton-Idehen said the first step towards doing that would be to reposition the satellite company and put it in a position that will help to escalate broadband penetration to un-served and underserved areas of the country.
- “Picture Aminu, Ada, or Ade on his/her remote farm, engaging on a marketplace platform with an AI chatbot to determine the current price of cash crops for his suppliers. Envision a Nigeria where the utilization of ICT impacts all spheres. A good example was the significant impact of ICT during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- “Now, imagine a country, Nigeria, and a continent, Africa, where we utilize ICT to drive transparency in government and improve the quality and cost of public service delivery. This is not just the future; it is the goal. It will significantly increase ICT’s GDP contribution (17.8% in Q1 2023 and 19.54% in Q2 2023) for Nigeria.
- “These are big and audacious goals, yet we are not the first to attempt them. In a similar stride, countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia are pursuing diversification despite their extensive oil and gas reserves. This is the picture of the future we want for Nigeria, with intense efforts from NIGCOMSAT in collaboration with other sister agencies, government bodies, and the private sector,” she said.
NIGCOMSAT’s edtech solution
Coming as the first action to back up Egerton-Idehen’s words and promises, NIGCOMSAT last week unveiled its Educational Technology (EdTech) solutions during a strategic meeting in Abuja. According to the company, the solutions will utilize satellite broadband connectivity to revolutionize education in Nigeria.
At the meeting themed, “NIGCOMSAT is open for business” the company’s MD said the desire to advance education through tech was what spurred this edtech project from NIGCOMSAT.
- “By providing schools with a bundled solution, access to affordable reliable internet, and leveraging edtech resources and interventions designed in alignment with the Nigerian curriculum, a more equitable and effective education can be achieved,” she said.
According to the Executive Director of Marketing and Business Development of NIGCOMSAT, Mr. Najeem Salaam, NIGCOMSAT now has a new goal with its upgraded broadband and broadcasting capacity platform to provide Nigerians with better access to opportunities.
- “NIGCOMSAT is therefore open for even greater business opportunities for all. The Nigeria of our dream is achievable, and we have started doing the work already. NIGCOMSAT is ours together as Nigerians, and we must grow our own and make the best out of it,” he said.
Failed moves to replace NIGCOMSAT-1R
While the new management of NIGCOMSAT is trying to reposition the company, the fact that its main asset, NIGCOMSAT-1R will be expiring in the next 3 years may create a setback except the government launches another satellite to replace it before 2026.
Before his exit in 2019, one of the former Ministers of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, had insisted that Nigeria needed two new satellites to act as a backup for the current one. He had announced plans to approach China-Exim Bank to secure a loan of $550 million for the purpose.
This, however, met stiff resistance from stakeholders, who argued that the current satellite operated by the country has been a wasted investment as it is not profitable and is being underutilised.
In 2021, former of NIGCOMSAT, Dr. Abimbola Alale, also announced at a stakeholder forum that the company was about to acquire two more satellites.
- “l am pleased to inform stakeholders of our desire to acquire more satellites between now and 2025 with the NigComSat-2 (Hight Throughput Satellite) due for launch in 2023 while NigComSat-3 will be launched in 2025,” she said at the time.
Legal Adviser and Company Secretary of the company, Alma Okpalefe, added that the planned launch of the two satellites in 2023 and 2025, would help NIGCOMSAT meet up with its mandate to commercialize satellite resources in the country and provide quality and cheap satellite services to Nigerians.
Last year, the federal government had also budgeted N2.5 billion for the acquisition of a second satellite, NIGCOMSAT 2, but it was not implemented.
Provision for NIGCOMSAT in 2022 approved budget
Why Nigerian businesses have shunned NIGCOMSAT
One major factor that has led to the underutilization of the NIGCOMSAT satellite is the fact that many businesses in Nigeria, especially, telecommunications companies have refused to patronize it over the years.
According to a former President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr Olusola Teniola, most telecommunications companies in Nigeria are sourcing their satellite services from abroad because it is cheaper than in-country.
- “The issue with NIGCOMSAT is the pricing. Service providers are taking capacities from foreign satellites because of that and this has been going on for quite some time,” he said.
Teniola said for the company to attract local operators, it has to review its pricing and also create service differentiation by offering what the telcos cannot get from foreign satellite services.
Similarly, the President of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Mr Destiny Amana, said high-cost service from NIGCOMSAT had been driving many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to patronize foreign satellites.
According to him, it is far cheaper to obtain satellite services from outside the country, compared to local facilities.
NigComSat-1R journey
On March 24, 2009, the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, NIGCOMSAT, Limited, and China Great Wall Industry Corporation, CGWIC, signed a contract for the in-orbit delivery of the NigComSat-1R satellite. It was a replacement for the failed NigComSat-1 which was launched on May 13, 2007.
Subsequently, on December 19, 2011, NigComSat-1R, paid for with the insurance policy on the de-orbited NigComSat-1 according to former President Goodluck Jonathan, was successfully launched into orbit by China in Xichang.
The satellite was designed to function in the areas of communications, internet services, health, agriculture, environmental protection, and national security before completing its 15-year lifespan.
They have come again o… A new government Minister pushing Good Intentions only as it’s market product and asking Nigerians to believe.
In the past 45 years alone, wave after wave of such ministerial spin have turned out to be made for the cameras only; they have often left me in the lurch and made me a strong believer in Apostle Thamas’s “Seeing Is Believing’ theory.
Decades ago, I was fooled into believing the Nigerian lie that Ajaokuta Steel Company would be coming onstream and that it was going to play a key role in Nigeria’s quest for an industrial revolution. It turned out to be a pie in the sky and a dawning that all the billions spent in waiting for Ajaokuta to start breathing were money lost to incompetent government policymakers who lacked integrity. There are still no Made in Naija auto-engines/components’ production lines, as promised; the popular mode of long distance journeys are not done by “swift” rail transportation; no Made in Naija rail wagons or rail truck assembly plants, and no tools and machinery production companies for the Agro industry. Like a dog whose tail was tucked between its legs, I retreated into my shell to count my losses.
Then came the Petrochemical Companies. As usual, the government minister in charge appeared on national TV complete with a well-scripted sales message and launched into an unrestrained verbal outpouring about how the petrochemical companies were going to be the solution to all our problems and how they would boost Nigeria’s FOREX capacity to kickstart the much anticipated industrial revolution and create capacity for “thousands” of jobs. The companies contracted to build those complexes had done their jobs, leaving the Nigerian government and its technocrats to carry out their mission of running and maintaining them. Again public service bureaucratic bottleneck destroyed everything… No PP or Carbon Black additives, the most important components, with which plastics, carpets, automobile tires, industrial ink etc. are produced. Through the petrochemical companies alone, Nigerians could have set up dozens of ancillary companies that feed on those chemicals capable of providing much-needed jobs. It failed… Again, that Federal Government Minister’s sermon turned out to be what it was, excellent lies meant to sweeten Nigerians.
Again, the weirdo of them all: the promised “Agricultural Revolution that would kick start in May 2015, “which will conveniently put oil in the shade as the primary FOREX earner in Nigeria; it will beat down prices of rice, corn, wheat etc…” according to then Agric. Minister Alhaji Audu Ogbeh.
Today, we may boldly state that the market prices of those crops have trippled in the past 8 years, and that oil, like the stone that the builder had rejected, remains the cornerstone of the Nigerian economy. Lie, lie…
If you wish to add Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s false step called the Aluminium Smelting Company at Akwa Ibom built with excess crude money or oil windfall if you may, you will agree with me that the Nigerian government and its ministers are not to be trusted in matters of the economy in particular.
The above-mentioned industries which Nigeria has failed to bring to life after wasting billions of public funds, are some of the backbones of an industrial revolution. Why should we not blame the government for disappointing Nigerians and creating poverty?
The new Minister of Telecoms has followed in the usual steps of her predecessors by announcing a plethora of benefits which her baby, NIGCOMSAT1, which has 3 of its 15 years to spend before it’s expiration, will bring to bear in the education, agricultural. sectors.
One month to the expiration of 2023, the date previous ministers had promised to launch NIGCOMSAT2, the first of its two support satellites to space, the new minister has failed to tell Nigerians why they should no longer expect it.
The real reason behind the failure of the Nigerian private sector to patronize the government’s satellite services is not because of its high costs. Like oil contracts, parties commit themselves to long-term agreements. Nigeria is known for its policy inconsistencies when it comes to doing business. No business can thrive with good intentions only, there must be a deliberate and sustained effort to let our yes be yes.
Fourteen years ago, I’d convinced one of my sons to do a Master’s in Telecommunications Engineering at a prestigious US uni. I thought that with the NIGCOMSAT1 project coming to full bloom, he could join and contribute to its smooth running and become an asset to his country. On graduating, he picked up employment in a tech company to acquire some experience before returning to his country, but, like the Ajaokuta Steel Company, the Petrochemical companies, the Aluminium Smelting Company, the Agricultural sector and the failed NIGCOMSAT, no business set up by the government prospers no thanks to ineptitude and lack of good character by its operatives at all levels. Each time I think of the Nigerian youth and how Nigeria is blighting their future tears fill my eyes.
My suggestion to the Nigerian government via its legislative arm is to step back and keep off business, allowing the private sector to run such businesses as sending satellites to space, building steel rolling mills, aluminium smelting industries, petrochemical/oil refining companies, etc. It should provide the right environment and supervise the processes only. That is what those developed and developing economies are doing. It is the best way to expand Nigeria’s economic capacity.