Nigeria needs sophisticated satellites to save over $2 billion annually – expert

A Space Engineer, Prof. Spencer Onuh, has said said that Nigeria needs to acquire more sophisticated satellites to reduce capital flight on data, imagery sourcing which amounts to over two billion dollars annually.

Onuh said this on Tuesday, in an interview with the newsmen in Abuja while reminiscing on the impact of the National Space programme in the past 25 years.

He said that satellite data was very expensive and government institutions were spending the money on acquiring data and imageries from other countries.

“We have the challenge of capital flight on data and imagery because our satellites were designed with specific resolutions.

“These institutions are looking for a certain level of resolution which our satellites don’t have the capacity to give, hence they go outside Nigeria to get them.

“Military standard is sub-one meter and our own house resolution is 2.5meter, it is a big challenge.

“Nigeria is losing 2 to 3 billion dollars annually in data, because data is expensive.

“If you are looking for data for town planning or the military, you need imageries from sub-one meter, 30cm, 50cm resolution satellites,’’ he said.

According to him, these agencies go for such because it gives them value for what they are looking for and these kinds of things are changing rapidly.

He added that acquiring satellites of higher resolutions was capital intensive, but could save the country a lot of money.

Another challenge bedevilling space programme in Nigeria, he said was cloudy sky and environment, whereby getting imageries with existing satellite was a big problem.

“We will need a Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite to solve the issue of cloud cover.

“We need to monitor our weather which is becoming a big challenge, which having a Meteorological satellite can handle.

“If Nigeria is looking at another phase of satellite design, manufacture to address the issue of cloud cover, we need to consider these things.

“We also need the replacement of our communication satellite that will soon be deorbited and could be decaying in their performance,’’ Onuh said.

He urged the Federal government to commit to the revolutionising space programme, adding that it was for the benefit of the entire country.