The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, on Thursday said the Federal Government was working tirelessly to purchase two additional satellites for the Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd. (NIGCOMSAT) to boost its services.
Shittu disclosed this when the Chairman, Board of NIGCOMSAT, Mr George Moghalu, led the management team of NIGCOMSAT on a visit to the Ministry of Communications in Abuja.
“ We had lived with the problem of having one satellite in orbit and this is not the first time that journalists will appreciate that we are working tirelessly to have two more satellites.
“By which time we will really enforce Nigerian companies and establishments to patronise only Nigerian satellite communication and this is a challenge we are working on.
“We are reaching new heights and getting new breakthroughs and I hope that in another one month we would be able to address the Nigerian public on what we have achieved.
“I believe that before the end of the tenure of this board we would have attained that, ‘’ he said.
According to the minister, NIGCOMSAT is a business and an important entity of the federal government as it was set up to provide facility for satellite communication.
The minister said that when the board was inaugurated he urged it to see its assignment in NIGCOMSAT as a rescue mission as the establishment was where government had spent a lot of money and it expected much more.
“ We have resolved to take major steps which will advance the business of NIGCOMSAT.
“ I want to assure all Nigerians that we are all collaborating to ensure that the agency becomes one of the most preferred satellite company on the African continent, ‘’ he added.
Earlier, Moghalu said the team was in the ministry to express the board’s gratitude to the minister and staff of the ministry.
He said the team appreciated the support that NIGCOMSAT had consistently received from the ministry in the agency’s efforts to reposition and be in the comity of satellite organisations all over the world.
“There are other issues we have brought to the knowledge of the minister especially in the areas we think that the ministry can be of help so that we can achieve our set objectives.
“Let me also thank President Muhammadu Buhari for the confidence he had in us as a team by appointing us as the board of NIGCOMSAT with a clear mandate to turn the place around to occupy its rightful position,” he said.
