Nigeria wants a High Throughput satellite
March 24, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Nigeria’s NigComSat (Nigerian Communications Satellite) is inviting Requests for Proposals from the satellite industry to construct and build a giant High Throughput Satellite (HTS).
The new satellite would, says the invitation, serve the nation’s broad array of the communication needs in the areas of Broadcasting, Broadband and Internet Services.
Bidders must enter their pre-qualification document by April 6th to NigSatCom in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
NigSatCom has not been fortunate in its planning. It lost NigComSat-1 back in 2008, while the various organisations supervising Nigeria’s scientific as well as commercial satellite business have allegedly been accused of high spending without tangible results.
A comment from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace described the challenges facing the nation, saying: “The Nigerian space agency is considered prime examples of bureaucratic corruption—large amounts of money going to organizations that have no direct impact on the lives of Nigerians.”
In 2018, Nigeria agreed to give a $550 million equity stake in the state-owned satellite operator NigComSat to a Chinese satellite company, China Great Wall, to manufacture two communications satellites to be launched by China two years after the final agreement is signed. China Great Wall now reportedly owns close to 50 per cent equity in the Nigerian government-owned satellite operator.