Nigeria: NIGCOMSAT, the Nigerian national satellite operator, is seeking international collaborators and investors for its project to deploy two new telecommunications satellites

NIGCOMSAT, Nigeria’s national satellite operator, is seeking international collaborators and investors for its project to deploy two new telecommunications satellites: NigComSat-2a and NigComSat-2b. Jane Nkechi Egerton-Idehen (pictured), Managing Director of the company, revealed on Sunday 14 July in a LinkedIn post that a call for expressions of interest had been issued for this purpose.

The two new satellites will replace NIGCOMSAT-1R, the only communications satellite operated by Nigeria since December 2011. The spacecraft replaced NigComSat-1, which was launched by China on 13 May 2007 but lost in space shortly afterwards. It will reach the end of its 15-year life in 2026.

In 2016, the Nigerian government announced its intention to equip the country with two new telecoms satellites. Adebayo Shittu, then Minister of Communications, stated that the initiative would require around $500 million. He added that the government was negotiating a loan with the China Eximbank to implement the project.

According to NIGCOMSAT, these two new satellites will help to ensure greater global coverage of broadband Internet, particularly in remote and underserved areas. With this in mind, the company has stepped up its partnership agreements with companies such as Infratel, Hotspot and Dimension Data in recent weeks.

As a reminder, Nigeria had 219.3 million mobile subscribers and 163.8 million internet subscribers on 31 March, according to official statistics. However, the actual figures are likely to be lower, given that some Nigerians have several SIM cards, each of which is counted as a subscriber.