Nigeria to acquire communication satellite

The Federal Government has given approval to the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, NigComSat, to purchase another Satellite in 2022.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami while addressing Journalists when he toured the facilities at the agency’s base in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

He explained that “The approval of federal government which I have secured has been forwarded to NigComSat. Now it is on the table of NigComSat to answer that question.I want to make sure that as I said that 2022 is NigComSat year along with NIPOST. I want to make sure that all work in progress must be completed by 2022. As I said earlier 2022 has been dedicated to NigComSat and NIPOST, and I want to do the best I can to improve what we have achieved in the previous years.“

Speaking further the Pantami said, “I recently approved two subsidiaries of NigComSat and I am here to supervise what they have been doing. And I discovered some areas where we need to work to improve their performance significantly,“ the Minister noted

Professor Pantami also stated that for the agency not to be considered for privatisation again; it must provide quality service and generate good revenue.

“Before I was made the Director-General National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), there was the Orosaye report which recommended for the scrapping of NITDA. But when I was able to turn things around from generation seven billion to 19 billion in a year; no one talks about scrapping NITDA again. So if you are able to turn things around, render quality service and generate income. No one will talk of privatising your company again,” he emphasised

Meanwhile, the Director-General, NigComSat, Dr Abimbola Alale appreciated the minister for his immense support.

“We all know what our budget used to be (200 million, 300 million), for a company that needs capital after overhead. He stood for us and said there must be something good in NigComSat. Because he is a man who believes that we can actually turn around NigComSat.“

Alale also promised the Minister of the agency’s readiness to deliver quality service and generate revenue to justify the Ministers efforts revitalising the agency.

“This year the Honourable Minister has given us many challenges and I know you are ready to meet the challenges. The subsidiaries are self-funding and sustaining. This year, Nigerians will new significant changes that will make them know that NigComSat is a new company. The minister has pushed us and NigComSat is truly a global company.“

According to Alade, Pantami is the first minister to add NigComSat to the National Broadband Plan (NBP)

They used the opportunity to ask for the Minister’s support in securing more Ministries Departments and Agency’s (MDA’s), patronage to increase their revenue drive. (VON)