They spoke recently after an on-the-spot assessment and tour of NIGCOMSAT facilities including the Satellite Ground Control Station, Direct-To-Home (DTH) platform and Research and Development (R&D) units among others.
ISPON President, Dr. Chris Uwaje, who led Messrs Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu (Secretary General), Femi Ayo-Yusuf, Uche Obiofuma, Mabata Adoki, Deolu Abodunrin and Afolabi Egbedire, said the team was convinced beyond every doubt that the satellite programme was on course.
Uwaje said he and his team have seen the assemblage of very high profile engineers at work, and were sure that NIGCOMSAT will deliver to Africa an army of satellite engineers very soon, adding that public perception was based on the general ignorance of the real issues on ground and “we are ready to tell the world the good work you and your team are doing.”
ISPON, he said, came to NIGCOMSAT in furtherance of its national advocacy for the establishment, adoption and promotion of a national software strategic policy and “to rub minds on critical challenging ICT issues for national development.”
Uwaje told the management team of NIGCOMSAT that Nigeria has potentials of accelerated development as the future belongs to ICT and knowledge is embedded in the electronic sphere.
Addressing the visitors, the Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT, Engr. Timansaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, said that the company strived at employing and training first-class engineers, stressing “at NIGCOMAT today, we can on our own build completely, most electronic gadgets, hardware and software applications.”
He informed the ISPON team that 90% of what is done at NIGCOMSAT is software-based. “These include developing software for budget monitoring and tracking system for the Budget Office of the Federation, and an application for FCT Developmental Control for granting approvals and plans and archiving and retrieving information among other purposes, NIGCOMSAT also has a full solution for e-voting in Nigeria, adding that NIGCOMSAT has come up with a strategy, which has been applauded by the Federal Government called SWAT-500, whereby five million individuals will eventually be trained in software engineering. As we are doing this, we will create an outsourcing centre, which will definitely excite top software practitioners”, he said.
Earlier, the Head, Engineering, Engr. Abdulraheem Adajah conducted the facility tour and explained to the delegation the circumstances that led to the de-orbiting of NigComSat-1 in 2008, 18 months after it was launched. He assured that NigComSat-1R, the replacement for NigComSat-1, which has same features with few modifications, will not suffer the same fate as certain measures are being put in place.
Continued here:
‘Nigerian satellite projects will impact on the economy’