FG to regulate, license space sector to boost revenue

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, has said the Federal Government will soon commence the regulation and licensing of players in the space ecosystem for more revenue generation.

Nnaji said this at the inauguration of the Advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Laboratory of the National Space Research and Development Agency in Abuja on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the inauguration of the laboratory was part of the activities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Nigeria in Space.

Nnaji stated that there were lots of illegalities in the oil and gas sector and different sectors of the economy which satellite technology could detect and address.

Nnaji said, “Very soon, we will start regulating and licensing the space sector, the upstream, mainstream and part of downstream, it is a major achievement and it is happening under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

“With the application of our unmanned aerial vehicles, we are going to use it to monitor pipeline leakages, pipeline vandalism, and beef up our revenue by monitoring the way ships come into the country.

“When some of these ships come in, they off their ignition and more than 80 per cent of ships coming into Nigeria ports don’t pay, they don’t pay bunker fees, they off their ignition.

“We can’t monitor some of these things when we don’t have satellites, but with satellites, we can see all these things and even boost agricultural activities.

“With our satellites, we can monitor earth movements and all these are part of the small benefits of satellite technology.”

In his remarks, the Director-General of NASRDA, Matthew Adepoju, said the agency deserved to go into deploying space spin-offs and it was seriously engaging the private sector to develop the space ecosystem.

Adepoju stated, “We have done a lot of research, innovative breakthroughs and one of my major priorities is how to turn these into products and services for direct benefit to Nigeria’s economy.

“We are looking at how it can impact security, agriculture and for the first time, we are collaborating with Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited and the Defence Space Administration to forge a renewed hope of relationship in our ecosystem.

“Part of our core mandate is to develop indigenous capacity not only in satellite, but also in astronomy and all facets of space science and technology, hence the AUAVL.

“The application of the UAV which we call drones has become a widely acceptable platform for environment monitoring, and precision agriculture.”

Adepoju appealed to Ministries, Departments and Agencies that required space technology to collaborate with NASRDA to achieve the government’s mandate.

The Director and Coordinator of the AUAVL, Chichebe Akachukwu, corroborated that the idea was to ensure the implementation of the Presidential Executive Order 005 of local content development.

Akachukwu said the materials for the agency’s drones were locally sourced and processed, adding that they were either designed and built in China or America, depending on where they got the correct specifications.

“The drone we have is for precision agriculture, precision agriculture makes you spend less energy and you have optimal harvest and you can also use it for surveillance.

“We also have a drone that can be used for long-distance and long endurance missions, it can do pipeline monitoring, it can also do other surveillance activities,” he said.

The director, who disclosed that the agency already had a laboratory in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, said the Abuja lab would offer its collaborators the ease of making use of the facility within the Federal Capital Territory.

The highlight of the event was the launching of NASRDA’s International Journal of Space Technology and Earth Sciences by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, Mrs Esuabana Nko-Asanye.

NAN