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Tag: NIGCOMSAT

  • ATCON, NIGCOMSAT partner on 30% broadband penetration target

    The Association of Telecommunications Companies Of Nigeria (ATCON) says it is partnering the Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NIGCOMSAT) to facilitate the attainment of 30 per cent broadband target by December 2018.

    ATCON President, Mr Olusola Teniola, gave the indication while speaking at a Strategic Business Interactive Session on Wednesday in Lagos.

    Broadband penetration is presently at 22 per cent.

    Teniola said that the interactive session between NIGCOMSAT and ATCON was borne out of the need to bring NlGCOMSAT’s services to ATCON members.

    He said that majority of ATCON members do not know that they coan buy capacity from NlGCOMSAT.

    According to him, those who know do not patronise NlGCOMSAT because they think NIGCOMSAT‘s prices are very high.

    ”Be that as it may, ATCON’s primary focus with respect to pervasive broadband is to see how our members can leverage on satellite technology for the deployment of broadband for socio-economic development of our country.

    ”In the last few years, ATCON has come up with some initiatives that are not traditional.

    ”The whole essence of thinking outside the box is to increase our impact on our members and the industry as a whole.

    ”This initiative would undoubtedly make our industry to realise its broadband target set by the federal government,” he said.

    Teniola said that the strategic business interactive session was designed to foster a mutually beneficial business relationship between ATCON members and NlGCOMSAT, with special emphasis on broadband penetration across the country.

    He said that the initiative was aimed at making NlGCOMSAT offer its quality services at a cheaper rate, for the patronage of members.

    According to him, the session is to support broadband service via satellite technology and to rejuvenate the satellite business among members.

    The Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT, Ms Abimbola Alale, on her part, said there was the need to critically examine the prospects, challenges and future plans in deepening broadband penetration nationally.

    Alale said that the need for a mutual relationship to achieve broadband penetration in the country was long overdue.

    She said that Nigerians were waiting with keen interest to see how the industry would achieve the targeted broadband penetration.

    According to her, in this information age, broadband/communication services cannot be limited to few cities and towns in the country.

    She said: ”The farmer, the market woman, the student and a host of others are critical stakeholders in the nation’s quest for digital economy and inclusiveness.

    ”We commend the business focus and contribution of ATCON in taking services to the people in urban and sub-urban areas.

    ”Our collective efforts will yield better results across all parts of the country, in order to boost the overall business environment.

    ”A forum like this therefore, is not only timely but also critical to forge the frontiers of telecommunications operators and satellite operators for a common good.

    ”It is certainly true that there is tremendous capacity of broadband here in Lagos, but what about other areas in the country?”

    Alale said that the country was faced with a challenge to urgently cover those areas where broadband services were needed.

    She said that NIGCOMSAT would like to partner with ATCON to ensure achievement of the federal government’s plan of broadband penetration.

    ”I am pleased to inform you that Nigeria’s foremost satellite, NigComSat-IR is performing optimally and the Ka-band payload consists of eight active transponders with a bandwidth of 120 MHz each for communication and broadcasting services.

    ”It has three fixed spot beams over Nigeria, South Africa and Europe.

    ”For additional support, we have made back-up agreements with more than two satellite operators.

    ”We are commited to make NigComSat-lR readily available to serve as the nation’s gateway for ease of doing business in this digital age,” the Alale said.

     

  • FG working tirelessly to purchase 2 additional satellites

    FG working tirelessly to purchase 2 additional satellites

    The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, on Thursday said the Federal Government was working tirelessly to purchase two additional satellites for the Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd. (NIGCOMSAT) to boost its services.

    Shittu disclosed this when the Chairman, Board of NIGCOMSAT, Mr George Moghalu, led the management team of NIGCOMSAT on a visit to the Ministry of Communications in Abuja.

    “ We had lived with the problem of having one satellite in orbit and this is not the first time that journalists will appreciate that we are working tirelessly to have two more satellites.

    “By which time we will really enforce Nigerian companies and establishments to patronise only Nigerian satellite communication and this is a challenge we are working on.

    “We are reaching new heights and getting new breakthroughs and I hope that in another one month we would be able to address the Nigerian public on what we have achieved.

    “I believe that before the end of the tenure of this board we would have attained that, ‘’ he said.

    According to the minister, NIGCOMSAT is a business and an important entity of the federal government as it was set up to provide facility for satellite communication.

    The minister said that when the board was inaugurated he urged it to see its assignment in NIGCOMSAT as a rescue mission as the establishment was where government had spent a lot of money and it expected much more.

    “ We have resolved to take major steps which will advance the business of NIGCOMSAT.

    “ I want to assure all Nigerians that we are all collaborating to ensure that the agency becomes one of the most preferred satellite company on the African continent, ‘’ he added.

    Earlier, Moghalu said the team was in the ministry to express the board’s gratitude to the minister and staff of the ministry.

    He said the team appreciated the support that NIGCOMSAT had consistently received from the ministry in the agency’s efforts to reposition and be in the comity of satellite organisations all over the world.

    “There are other issues we have brought to the knowledge of the minister especially in the areas we think that the ministry can be of help so that we can achieve our set objectives.

    “Let me also thank President Muhammadu Buhari for the confidence he had in us as a team by appointing us as the board of NIGCOMSAT with a clear mandate to turn the place around to occupy its rightful position,” he said.

     

  • NIGCOMSAT poised to promote e-learning in schools across Nigeria

    Mr Samson Osagie, the Executive Director, Marketing and Business Development, Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd. (NIGCOMSAT) said the organisation was seeking partnership with state governments to provide e-learning in schools.

    Osagie made this known in Abuja on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria.

    He said part of NIGCOMSAT service was to provide e-learning in schools, especially in the remote areas of the country.

    He said the organisation had also sent out its marketers and engineers to take proposals to various states of the federation.

    “NIGCOMSAT had sent out its team to the states to take the proposal for this initiative to states so that they can key into the e-learning project.

    “It will also give the organisation the opportunity to provide e-learning solutions and broadband connectivity to both secondary and primary schools.

    “We are talking to many state government, we are talking to Edo, Delta, Kano, Jigawa and many other states in the country.

    “So more than ever before, we are reaching out to many states in the area of providing broadband services, encouraging them to put their local broadcast stations on our Direct to Home (DTH) channels,’’ he said.

    Osagie said recently, NIGCOMSAT was in Liberia as part of the organisation’s marketing and explorative drive to ensure that it takes its services further into the Africa market.

    He said NIGCOMSAT planned to take its services round the country, including countries in West Africa, adding that Liberia happened to be one of those countries that require technology to accelerate development.

    “The consequences of war have affected the country so much but NIGCOMSAT’s meeting with the Liberian President George Weah was very fruitful.

    “We had opportunities to make presentations before the minister of education for the provision of connectivity and e-learning solutions to schools in Liberia.

    “We are following up on this to register our presence in Liberia, the way we are in a few other countries in Africa,

    “Our services are in Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire and recently Gabon, we are doing all that to ensure that the potential of NIGCOMSAT IR is not only felt within the country.

    “As we are exploring the local market, we are also exploring the international market, especially within the Africa continent.

     

  • Nigeria to launch 2 satellites soon – NIGCOMSAT

    Nigeria to launch 2 satellites soon – NIGCOMSAT

    The Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited on Monday said that it was collaborating with China Great Wall Industry Cooperation (CGWIC) to launch two additional satellites.

    Mr Samson Osagie, the Executive Director, Marketing and Business Development of the organisation said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Monday that the satellites would be deployed in the next 36 months.

    Osagie explained that the durability of a satellite was 15 years, and that the Nigeria’s current satellite was seven years old.

    “NIGCOMSAT is collaborating with China Great Wall Industry Cooperation and we are negotiating to launch additional two satellites in 36 months.

    “Presently Nigeria does not have the capital to build and finance its own satellite which is why the collaboration is needed.

    “The first satellite by Nigeria was launched in 2007 but had issues and was de-orbited. It was later re-launched in 2011 which makes it seven years now.

    “The life span of a satellite is 15 years, which means that the first one is still functional and it is important to note that negotiations for projects like this take time,” Osagie said.

    According to him, the additional satellites will meet the needs of telecommunication, maritime, defence, broadcast media, Africa, parts of Asia and others.

    He said that the two satellites would be launched separately, adding that negotiations on their operations were ongoing simultaneously.

    NAN reports that NIGCOMSAT-1, the first satellite was originally launched in May 2007, but de-orbited due to malfunctioning of the Solar Array Deployment Assembly.

    The satellite was later re-launched in 2011 as NIGCOMSAT-1R and had been in the orbit since then.

     

  • We’re committed to carrying out reforms in ICT sector – Minister

    Mr Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communications, says the ICT Roadmap, if well implemented, will facilitate the development of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry.

    The Minister expressed the Federal Government’s commitment to the reform of ICT sector in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.

    He said the implementation of the ICT Roadmap of 2017 to 2020, would also help to increase the sector’s contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) through improved and better service delivery.

    He said that the roadmap came about as a result of views, proposals and recommendations of various stakeholders in the industry as to where the industry should be heading to.

    According to him, the roadmap defines the different roles that the different agencies of the ministry should undertake in order to use ICT to develop Nigeria.

    “The time NIPOST is reformed and became fully commercialised, it would have not less than five new companies.

    “One of them is NIPOST Banking and Insurance Company, NIPOST Property and Development Company, NIPOST Transport and Logistics Company, NIPOST e-Commerce Services and NIPOST e-Government Services,” he said.

    Shittu said the document also recommended two additional satellites for NIGCOMSAT in order to expand the infrastructure of the agency which currently has one satellite in orbit.

    He said by the time the agency’s infrastructure was consolidated, it would stop Nigerian entities from patronising foreign satellite companies, thereby reducing capital flight from the country.

    He, however, noted that having complied with the objectives of the roadmap, the supervisory, mentoring and regulatory roles of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had improved substantially with regards to the telecom operations.

    ‘’With regards to the internet operations, NITDA as a supervisor and regulator has also improved tremendously having regards to the ideas that are contained in the roadmap,” he added.

    On what the ministry is doing on issue of importation of fake and sub-standard phones into Nigeria, the minister said plans were underway to bring-up a legal framework against such practice.

    “For now, the thinking is still on as to how to bring a legislation which will enforce the customisation of phones that are coming in,” he said.

    He however acknowledged that the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Nigerian Customs Service had a lot to do in ensuring that the right products were brought into the country.

    “And you will agree with me that it is not really the business of this ministry.

    “It is the business of the SON and of the Customs to ensure that only the right things are brought in and the appropriate customs duties are paid on them,” he said.

    Shittu said he would love to be remembered as a minister who was the most acceptable by the stakeholders in the ICT industry and a minister who was ready to welcome every new idea by everybody.

    “I want to be remembered as a minister who came here, who was the most accessible minister by members of the general public; the minister who saw himself not as a boss but as a servant of the public.

    “And a minister, who was the most acceptable by the stakeholders in the ICT industry.

    “I am happy to say I have already achieved that because initially when I was appointed, stakeholders protested because I was not an ICT person but barely one and half years thereafter, I was given an award of fellow of the Nigerian Computer Society.

    “So a minister in whose time, NIPOST became repositioned, became reformed and became commercialised to such an extent that new companies never heard of in the history of any postal service, became established for Nigeria.

    “So, these are some of the things I hope before I leave office I would have achieved and much more,” he said.

     

  • Delta Govt. partners NIGCOMSAT on broadband connectivity for schools

    The Delta State Government has commenced negotiations with the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) company for possible partnership in the area of broadband connectivity for schools and hospitals across the state.

    TheNewsGuru reports NIGCOMSAT Executive Director of Marketing and Business Development, Mr. Samson Osagie, with some members of his team on Monday met with, Mr. Bright Edejewhro the State Commissioner for Science and Technology in Asaba to fine-tune the details of the partnership.

    The state government is hoping to partner with NIGCOMSAT for the deployment of technologies to enhance teaching and learning in schools across the state.

    In order to deepen broadband penetration in Nigeria, the board of the Nigerian Commissions Commission (NCC) recently approved two additional Infrastructure Company (Infraco) licences for the South Eastern and for the North Eastern regions of the country.

    Also recently, the NCC said it will very soon license more Infracos and also auction additional spectrums in the bid to achieve its broadband penetration target for the country.

    Professor Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC said Nigeria is left with just 8 per cent to attain the 30 per cent broadband target set by the Federal Government by the end of this year.

    “At the moment, Nigeria has moved from 10 per cent to 22 per cent broadband penetration in the pursuit of the 30 per cent target set for December 2018.

    “Effort is ongoing to deepen the penetration as part of this administration’s eight-point agenda.

    “Plans are also ongoing to license Infrastructure Companies, Infracos, auction some frequency licences, while some are being initiated and some being reframed to achieve the broadband penetration target.

    “In broadband, we have moved from 10 per cent to 22 per cent broadband penetration at the moment. All these are going on simultaneously,” Danbatta said.

     

  • INEC partners NIGCOMSAT for credible elections in 2019

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has made known its intention to partner with the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, (NIGCOMSAT) to deploy appropriate technology to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2019.

    According to a report on the commission’s site inecnews.com, the chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said this while addressing the management of NIGCOMSAT in Abuja on Tuesday.

    The INEC Chairman noted that time had come to “mobilise all national asset and institutions for the success of elections.”

    Yakubu, who was at the agency’s office with members of the commission, expressed optimism that partnering with NIGCOMSAT, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, as well as telecommunications operators in the country would ensure “that challenges to the seamless transmission of results are defeated.”

    The commission had earlier sought the help of the NCC to electronically transmit and collate results during the said elections.

    The chairman explained that the commission planned to leverage on the capacity of NIGCOMSAT to provide a wide range of telecommunication services especially in some areas not fully covered by 3G or 4G networks.

    “Through the NCC, we are reaching out to the telecommunications operators for the necessary connectivity to ensure that results of elections from each of the 119,973 Polling Units nationwide are electronically transmitted, including scanned images of result sheets.

    “While we appreciate the tremendous reach of the telecommunications operators, we are equally aware that some of our Polling Units are located in places where 3G and 4G networks are not available for real time electronic transmission of results.

    “We wish to leverage the capacity of the NIGCOMSAT to provide a wide range of telecommunication services. In particular, your broadband service offers tremendous flexible bandwidth capacity that can be deployed almost anywhere and in a short period of time, including hard-to-reach and temporary locations. These are invaluable to the work of INEC.”

    According to the chairman, areas of collaboration the commission looks forward to include: extension of satellite coverage to areas currently not covered by 3G and 4G networks so that INEC can transmit election results from each polling unit nationwide irrespective of location and voter education and sensitisation through electronic message display.

    Stressing on the importance of the collaboration between both organisations, he said: “This is also one way to actualise the lofty goals of NIGCOMSAT to positively impact on national development in diverse sectors through deployment of high-tech telecommunications infrastructure.”

    Yakubu reassured Nigerians that the commission would continue to make hard copies of result sheets available to political party agents at each polling unit to back the integrity of electronically transmitted results, as they “can be compared, verified and authenticated.”

    “And in keeping with our current practice, a copy of result for each election shall be pasted at the polling units immediately after the counting of the ballots for public knowledge.”

    The Director General/Chief Executive of NIGCOMSAT, Abimbola Alale, assured that her organisation was willing to support the commission in the consolidation of democracy.

    “We are very delighted that we can be of service to you and to be able to drive democracy to a new and better height. We want to be your partner, we want to work with you,” she said.

  • 2019 Election: INEC to deliver election results real-time

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will collaborate with Nigerian Communications Satellites Limited (NIGCOMSAT) to transmit results of the 2019 general elections in real-time.

    INEC chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu made this known when he and a delegation team from the commission visited NIGCOMSAT operation base in Abuja on Wednesday.

    The chairman and his team were taken on a tour of the Satellite Control Center, Network Operating Center, Broadband, Navigation, Innovation & Design unit and Direct-To-Home Center of the NIGCOMSAT.

    Professor Yakubu and members of the commission were received by the MD/Chief Executive Officer NIGCOMSAT, Mrs.Abimbola Alale.

    The INEC chairman expressed satisfaction with the products and services of NIGCOMSAT, and gave the assurance of the collaboration between the two organizations in carrying out the activities of e-collation and transmission of election results real time during the 2019 elections.

    He said that through NIGCOMSAT’s satellite and connectivity provided by telecom operators, the results of elections of each of the 119,973 polling units nationwide would be electronically transmitted on the spot and real time, including the scanned images of result sheets.

    The INEC chairman also said the commission wants NIGCOMSAT to help in voter education through electronics message display as the 2019 elections draw near.

    “It is for this reason that we wish to leverage on the capacity of NIGCOMSAT to provide a wide range of telecommunication services.

    “In particular, your broadband service offers a tremendous flexible bandwidth capacity that can be deployed almost anywhere and in a short period of time, including hard-to-reach and temporary locations.

    “These are invaluable to the work of INEC. Working with you and in partnership with the NCC as well as the telecommunications operators, we believe the challenges to the seamless transmission of results are not insurmountable”, he said.

    The INEC chairman said the commission is deepening its application of technology to elections hence the partnership with NIGCOMSAT.

    “INEC would continue to make available the hard copies of results sheets to political party agents at each polling unit and collation centres against which the integrity of the electronically-transmitted results can be compared, verified and authenticated.

    “Further, and in keeping with our current practice, a copy of the result for each election shall be pasted at the polling units immediately after the counting of ballots for public knowledge and accountability,” he added.

    In her remarks, the Ms Alale said NIGCOMSAT was ready to partner with INEC in transmitting election result to every nook and cranny of Nigeria.

    NIGCOMSAT’s Sat1-R, she said, is capable of covering and transmitting live and real time all that transpire during the election.

    TheNewsGuru reports INEC visit to NIGCOMSAT is part of continuous consultation with national bodies to deepen the application of technology for the upcoming 2019 general elections.

    Yakubu and his team also visited some voters’ registration centres in Abuja to monitor the progress of the exercise.

     

  • Legislation to compel Nigerian entities to patronize NIGCOMSAT

    Legislation to compel Nigerian entities to patronize NIGCOMSAT

    The Minister of Communication, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu has hinted the Nigerian government will make statutory legislation to compel Nigerian entities to patronize the country’s satellite company, Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT).

    The Communication Minister hinted on this while addressing State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday.

    He said part of his meeting with the President was to update him on the approved procurement of two new satellites from China at the cost of 550 million dollars.

    Shittu revealed the China EXIM bank had agreed to pay the entire 550 million dollars for the procurement of the satellites.

    He, however, explained that the initial agreement was that the China EXIM bank would provide 85 per cent of the total cost ($550 million) while Nigeria would pay the remaining 15 per cent as counterpart funding for the projects.

    He stated that as Nigeria could not be able to meet her obligation in paying the counterpart funding, the agreement was renegotiated with the China EXIM bank and the manufacturer of the satellites, the China Great Walls.

    “Initially the agreement was that they will provide the cost of the two satellite 550 million dollars minus 15 per cent which is the counterpart funding.

    “Because we could not afford this 15 per cent, we have renegotiated with the China EXIM Bank and the China Great Walls who are the manufacturers and they have happily agreed to pay the entire $550 million to procure two new satellites,” Shittu said.

    The minister stated that the new satellites would ensure that the Nigerian satellite company would conquer the entire African continent in regard to the provision of satellite communication services.

    He said that the Chinese had appreciated the potential market that existed in the satellite business in Nigeria and the African continent.

    “This is a very big business opportunity and I am sure that the Chinese appreciate the potential market which is so vast and that is why they have agreed that even without our ability to contribute 15 per cent they are prepared to pay the entire sum of $550 million for the procurement of the two new satellites for Nigeria,’’ he added.

    Shittu revealed that the production of the satellites would commence immediately the final agreements were signed.

    “It takes two years to produce because it is when we sign the papers they will start production.

    “We hope that before the end of this month we will sign the papers and then they will commence the production. It is the completion of the production that the two satellites will be launched, he said.

    He added that Nigeria had nothing to lose because the country would not put anything into the project in terms of financial resources.

    “The president was excited and was not surprised because the Chinese are not just going to market our satellite to the entire African continent but also perhaps by legislation insists that all Nigerian entities must patronize the Nigerian satellite company rather than going to Israel, UK, US for satellite services.

    “Now we can say by our local content policy we must patronize Nigeria. The major issue is not about employment but by providing satellite services to all companies which require it.

    “Currently most Nigerian companies and even Nigerian government establishments patronize foreign satellite companies.

    “So the first thing is that we want to make profit, we want to capture the local market and we also want to capture the African market,” he said.

     

  • Shittu woos Indian investors for $4bn Rural Telephony in Nigeria

    Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, Nigeria’s head of delegation to the just concluded World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS FORUM 2017) in Geneva has struck a business deal to facilitate over $4 billion telecommunication investments from India to Nigeria, especially on rural telephony.

    Victor Oluwadamilare, the Minister’s Media Adviser said in a press release that while making his presentation at one of the sessions on the various business opportunities that beckons in the nation’s telecom sector and the need for investors around the world to take full advantage of Nigeria’s strategic relevance and positioning in Africa, Shittu extended a hand of fellowship to Indian investors and leading telecom stakeholders.

    “Barr. Shittu’s captivating account of Nigeria’s Government’s new capabilities, transparency and the new set of business ethos under President Muhammadu Buhari, are the impetus required for investors to be engaged in legitimate businesses without let or hindrance to get adequate and timely returns on their investments.

    “The audience who were held spell bound by the various giant strides of the Minister, as encapsulated by the different on-going reforms in the agencies under the Ministry, and in the overall telecom sector in the country were desirous of doing business in Nigeria,” he said.

    “At a side meeting with the ostensibly elated business gurus and key investors,” Oluwadamilare, continued, “a couple of Indian entrepreneurs convinced of the Minister’s olive branch and sincerity of purpose, jumped at the offer to pull resources together in excess of $4 billion to be invested in Nigeria’s telecom sector with emphasis on rural telephony and grassroots development”.

    “The two parties are due to meet next month to fine tune the necessary modalities.

    Meanwhile, other countries with technical expertise have also indicated interest to assist the country over satellite capabilities, so as to expand the horizon of NIGCOMSAT,” he further stated.