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FG, Varsities, Nigerians Form Pact on Satellite

This Day
Oke Epia
27 July 2007

The Federal Government together with some Nigerian Universities and some Nigerians in the Diaspora have jointly entered into a pact to actualize Nigeria 's dream of achieving a made-in-Nigeria satellite by the year 2015. A series of meetings have gone underway by the representatives of the different stakeholders in a partnership being implemented under the aegis of "Satellite to Promote Instructional and Research Experiments" (SPIRE).

At the inaugural meeting of the expert team in Abuja yesterday, the Director General of the National Space Research and Development Agency, Prof. Ajayi Boroffice, said the Centre for Satellite Technology Development (CSTD), has already evolved a strong partnership with Nigerian universities, the private sector and Nigerians in the Diaspora in this regard.

According to him, "the Satellite to Promote Instructional and Research Experiments (SPIRE) project is key to government's long term plan to build critical mass in space science and technology, develop indigenous expertise in the different facets of satellite technology and exploit the benefits of space science and technology for our overall national development. SPIRE project consist of two phases: SPIRE 1 envisages the building of an engineering model of a multi-mission micro-satellite in two years and SPIRE 2 will produce a flight model thereafter."

The NARSDA boss, who was represented by the Director of Space Applications at the Agency, Dr. Joseph Akinyele, noted that government envisioned a future where the nation's satellites would be manufactured and launched in Nigeria and that "the SPIRE project as an essential step to the realization of this vision and the SPIRE research collaborators as worthy pioneers of the vision."

In his remarks, the Director of the Centre for Satellite Technology development, Prof Johnson Ejimanya, informed that as part of the SPIRE programme, an internet portal that would facilitate interaction between research teams without wasteful travels, had been put in place.

He said: "It is our view that space science and technology hold the key to future prosperity and security as a nation. This is understood by the emphasis placed on the applications of technologies in the realization of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) and the objectives of NEPAD. Support of and /or participation in the SPIRE programme we believes is a major contribution to national development."

The meeting was attended by representatives from universities, the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, Nigerian Academy of Science, and Nigerian Society of Engineers, as well as the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission.

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