A presidential committee has told the federal government that the national satellite operator NigComSat and the Nigerian Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA) are currently performing duplicated and conflicting functions and recommended that they…
A presidential committee has told the federal government that the national satellite operator NigComSat and the Nigerian Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA) are currently performing duplicated and conflicting functions and recommended that they either be restructured or one be scrapped outright.
The Steve Oronsaye Committee on rationalisation of Federal Government parastatals and agencies submitted an 800-page report to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan recommending that the number of governmental and non-governmental departments and agencies should be reduced by over 100 to 161. The committee, which was formed in August 2011, argues that at present Nigeria has one of the highest costs of governance in the world and this was in part due to the sheer number of agencies and the repetition in their services.
Oronsaye, the former head of the Nigerian civil service, highlighted a number of conflicts of interests between agencies, including within the country’s fledgling space sector.
Oronsaye said: “The Committee noted the case where the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat) Limited, which was established as the commercial arm of the Nigerian Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA), with a sunset clause, has now expanded its scope and is in rivalry with its parent body. Indeed, only recently, the Nigerian Communications Satellite Corporation Bill was passed by the House of Representatives. Besides duplicating the satellite development functions of NASRDA, the Bill has created further needless duplications as it veers into the statutory functions of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) in the area of frequency allocation.
“In this austere time, Nigeria cannot afford to sustain the funding of multiple space research institutes, when in fact other more technologically advanced countries of the world, where space research is a priority, have only one. There is also the case of the Nigerian Broadcasting agencies (NTA, FRCN and VON) which the Committee believes focus more on structures rather than acquisition of broadcasting software. The world over, countries have made concerted efforts to manage the agencies responsible for their mass media communication by establishing and taking advantage of a single coordinating point. Such reforms in the media sector have been underpinned by the efficient use of resources and collaboration in order to have synergy amongst the operators.”
For his part, President Jonathan stated that the government would seek to implement a number of the recommendations without specifying which ones.
Since the successful launch of NigComSat-1R at the end of last year, the nascent satellite operator has been increasingly bullish about its prospects. At the beginning of April, chief executive Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai spoke about central role the company could play in increasing broadband penetration across Nigeria.
While in late March, Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) move to deny reports that NigComSat was seeking to merge with incumbent telco Nitel following the latter’s failed privatisation.
