Nigeria is to spend $23-million this year to launch its second satellite, NigeriaSat II, Minister of Science and Technology Turner Isoun said on Thursday.
”We are satisfied with the performance of NigeriaSat I and were encouraged to go a step further by focusing on the telecommunications sector with the new satellite,” the minister said.
NigeriaSat I, launched in Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia, on September 27 2003, observes and monitors potential disaster points. It has a five-year life span and also carries out hydrological and hazard mapping.
Isoun, who did not disclose the total cost of the new satellite, said Nigeria’s Parliament has approved the $23-million to be spent this year for its take-off.
He said the satellite will greatly enhance telecommunications in the country from 2006 when the government plans to launch it into space.
Telecommunications, particularly telephony, had been in the doldrums in Nigeria for ages until the introduction of the global satellite system of telephony in 2001. — Sapa-DPA