Prof. Riccardo and Mr. Kabiru Muhammad
A United Kingdom, UK-based Company, MenaSAT Gulf Group Plc, has expanded collaborations with the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA following a joint venture/partnership agreement.
Being the first in Africa, MenaSAT, which owns and operates a ‘World First Mover,’ a premier constellation of very high resolution (1m) Synthetic-Aperture Radar, SAR, on Wednesday presented satellite equipment to the management of NASRDA.
The equipment which is meant to maintain and manage satellites across the country was presented by the Chief Technical Officer, CTO, Prof. Riccardo Maggiora.
Presenting the equipment yesterday at the Obasanjo Open Space Centre in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Prof. Riccardo of MenaSAT told reporters that, “We started this collaboration like one year ago.
“MenaSAT distributes Radar satellite images in the African region and the reason NASRDA chose to partner with us is because they are expecting a point where they can take the big step by moving from optical images to Radar images.
“The optical imaging of the earth from satellite is limited and the only step is to move to a Radar image which can penetrate the very thick cloud coverage here in Nigeria and can see day and night.
“Moreover, the Radar image gives a lot of valuable information that are very useful for a large number of application earlier presented.
“The idea with NASRDA is to form a joint venture that will produce a three phase programme. We are in the first phase. We will install here, a data centre that will be to analyze these kinds of images, so we will start with the satellite and we will receive the images in the data centre, and then we will be able to provide the services to the customers here in this region.
“The second phase is to have the direct receiving of the data from the satellite by using the antennae. We will directly receive the data in the data centre.
“The third phase is to manufacture a satellite to be placed in offices.
“MenaSAT gulf group in partnership with a local content company GPH /texicom group, is a partnership being made possible by some young entrepreneurs which include Vice President – Kabiru Muhammad and Shuaibu, Ahmed Reuben on the international relations interface to explore and bring the best of technological advancement to our great nation Nigeria and the whole of Africa entirely, with the projection to save and generate revenue for the government of Nigeria, in the area of spatial information gathering, telecommunication, maritime and national security.
“Also, in the area of geological survey, seismic activities just to mention few but will affect every aspect of Nigerian lives and Africans on general.
“This is going to generate a lot of revenues running into billions of dollars and direct foreign investments with in vision for economic diversification of the present administration and the future for the the nation, it will also create enormous job opportunities and promote transparency, accountability in all aspects of good governance, security and livelihood.
Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and DG, NASRDA, Prof. Seidu Mohammed
“This is also made possible by the amiable dedicated leadership and support of the honorable Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, and the Director-General, DG, NASRDA, Prof. Seidu Mohammed.
“This will make Nigeria an international hub for technology. The programme will immediately kickoff with 46 MDA and agencies on Nigeria to save and generate revenue for the nation.
“It is a long term programme obviously. We hope to start the proceeds soon, probably by the end of the year and we are very positive about this,” he added, noting that the SAR satellite technology, when operational, will be the first in Nigeria, while images generated from it will benefit, particularly, the oil and gas operators, farmers, ocean monitoring, tracking of oil pipelines and also assist the military.
It would be recalled that in 2015, the Federal Government in Abuja signed a $250million joint venture/partnership agreement with MenaSAT Gulf Group Plc., to provide SAR satellites in the country.
While signing the contract, the DG NASRDA, said the SAR technology was necessary for Nigeria because of the challenges the agency have had in acquiring images in mostly, the southern part of the country.
“We have always had this constraint that even though we are the national repository for satellite images, we are not able to provide completely all the required images in this country. In the light of that, we have specially taken this opportunity to satisfy the Nigerian market,” the DG had said.
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