Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, says China will procure two new satellites from Nigeria at the cost of 550million dollars.
The minister made the disclosure while briefing State House Correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday.
According to him, the initial plan was for Nigeria to pay 15 percent of $550 million ($82 million) as counterpart funding for the production of the satellites, but because it could not raise the amount, the contract was renegotiated with the China EXIM Bank and the China Great Wall.
He said the satellite manufacturers had agreed to pay the entire $550 million to procure two new satellites.
Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited had in 2015 opened talks with China for the financing and construction of two new communication satellites at a cost of $701 million.
The new satellites, to be known as NigComSat-2 and NigComSat-3, are to serve as backup to the country’s existing communications satellite, NigComSat-1R, which was put in the orbit in December 2011.
The government targets to market the satellite services to Nigerian companies as well as across the African continent.
The minister said that two satellites will be ready in two years after the signing of the agreement by the end of this month.
