P. O. Box 500, a-1400, Vienna, Austria. Corrections will be issued in a consolidated corrigendum

COPUOS/T.551 

Page 12 

 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, Nigeria is making progress in 

its effort to design, build and launch the first Nigerian 

Communication Satellite, a critical ICT infrastructure 

in Nigeria and Africa, in collaboration with China 

Greatwall Industry Corporation.  The agreement for the 

project implementation covers the Know-How 

Technology Transfer to 55 Nigerian engineers and 

scientists who are presently undergoing training in 

China.  NigeriaSat-1 (NigcomSat-1?) is a hybrid 

geostationary satellite with a lift-off mass of over 5,150 

kilograms.  Other cutting edge features of NigcomSat-1 

include 30 active and 10 redundant transponders in C-, 

Ku, Ka- and L-Bands with footprints over Africa and 

beans for trunk communication services between 

Europe and Africa.  The target date for the satellite 

launch is December 2006 or, at the latest, March 2007.  

To justify Nigeria’s investment in the communication 

satellite project, the National Space Research and 

Development Agency, in collaboration with Kemilinks 

International and Spacetech, organized a three-day 

Workshop on the theme “The Nigerian Communication 

Satellite Project:  Opportunities for Investors and 

Service Providers”.  The Workshop provided an 

opportunity to examine the current status and future 

trends of satellite communications technology and the 

potential areas of applications.  It also reviewed the 

policy, regulatory, operational and business issues that 

would derive from the provision of satellite 

communications services in Nigeria.  Already notable 

institutions from both the public and private sectors 

signed agreements to invest substantially into the 

communication satellite project in terms of direct 

investment and the purchase of transponders. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, Nigeria, in partnership with 

UNESCO, organized a one-week Workshop on Space 

Education in Nigeria.  Students and teachers from 

secondary and tertiary institutions participated in the 

Workshop.  UNESCO has made available two of its 

activity centres for teaching, education and 

atmospheric and planetary research available to the 

Agency. 

 

 

In November 2005, Nigeria hosted the First 

African Leadership Conference on Space Science and 

Technology for Sustainable Development in Africa.  

The Workshop was attended by participants from 17 

African countries and United Nations observer bodies.  

The Conference was used as a forum to sensitize all 

African countries, including African member States of 

COPUOS, to maximize the benefits of space 

technology for human development and to be proactive 

in COPUOS activities.  One of the outcomes of the 

Conference was the formation of a Steering 

Committee, made up of representatives of Nigeria, 

South Africa, Kenya, Algeria, Egypt and the Economic 

Community for Africa, ECA, to deliberate on the way 

forward.  South Africa and Nigeria, as I reported 

earlier, have offered to host the second and third 

editions of the Conference in the last quarters of 2007 

and 2009, respectively.  It was agreed that the 

Conference would be held every two years. 

 

 

Participants from Nigeria, Algeria, South 

Africa and Kenya also used the opportunity of the 

African Leadership Conference to advance the progress 

made towards the development of the African 

Resource Management constellation satellites which 

include the proposed NigeriaSat-2.  The user 

requirement survey and technical parameters of the 

ARM satellites, which take into account the needs of 

the individual countries and African needs as a whole, 

and the inclusion of both medium and very high-

resolution payloads, are still being discussed. 

 

 

Similarly, an International Workshop on 

Space Law, which was jointly organized by the United 

Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the 

Nigerian Government and held in Abuja in November 

2005.  As mentioned earlier by the Director of the 

Office for Outer Space Affairs, the Workshop provided 

an opportunity to introduce space law to the Nigerian 

legal practitioners and policy makers and, indeed, to 

enhance the development of space law in Nigeria. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, Nigeria is pleased to express 

her willingness to support the DMISCO initiative by 

the coordination of its programme in Africa, through 

the donation of two experts and office accommodation 

with working facilities.  Nigeria will also support the 

disaster management activities of DMISCO through 

access to her space assets in accordance with her 

national data policy. 

 

 

Nigeria is fostering international cooperation 

through the Space Research Agency and its activity 

centres.  The Centre for Basic Space Science and 

Astronomy, at Nsukka, for example, has signed 

Memoranda of Understanding, MOU’s, with a number 

of international institutions, such as the National 

Astronomical Observatory of Japan, South Africa’s 

Astronomical Observatory and the University of 

Delaware, Harvard, in the United States, for 

collaboration in the areas of astronomy and 

astrophysics, capacity-building, atmospheric science, 

instrumentation and climate change 

observation/monitoring.  The Centre has also acquired 

a 25 centimetre optical telescope for the purpose of 

promoting the teaching of planetary sciences in 

Nigeria’s High School and tertiary institutions.  The 

Centre has published the first “Nigerian Journal of 

Space Research”, which is devoted to highlighting 

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