The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) will now broadcast to its audience in Nigeria and across the world via the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited’s satellite.
This was disclosed on Monday in Abuja when the two government agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the modalities for the new deal.
“Using NIGCOMSAT’s satellite would mean saving a lot of money for the country, and it also guarantee us security’’, the Director General of NTA, Alhaji Yakubu Ibn Mohammed, said.
He said the hooking on SAT-1R was in fulfilment of FG’s directive of patronising Nigerian made products to enhance economic development.
“We have been using the services of the foreign-based satellites, but now that we have it at the back of our homes we have deemed it fit to hook to our own’’, he said.
The Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT, Ms. Abimbola Alale, said the MoU entails the agency leasing its C-Band transponder to NTA to broadcast its services.
She said the leasing would no doubt boost the income generation of the agency and stop the capital flight in the country’s satellite sector.
Daily Trust reports that Nigeria loses N720billion annually due to low patronage of the country’s satellites by the MDAs.
The Executive Director, Marketing and Business Development, NIGCOMSAT, Samson Osagie, said with the mutual backup service MOU, NIGCOMSAT was poised to push its services further beyond the frontiers already covered as its clients no longer have any reason to worry about the absence of backup for NigComSat-1R.
Osagie enjoined corporate bodies to have confidence in NIGCOMSAT’s ability to render seamless services to its clients.
He noted that NIGCOMSAT Ltd occupies a strategic position for the nation’s economic and security architecture that it cannot be treated like other national assets that has been privatised.
