The Centre for Satellite
Technology Development (CSTD), yesterday advocated the use of satellite technology in all sectors of Nigeria’s economy for sustainable development.
The Chief Executive Officer of CSTD, Dr Spencer Onuh, told newsmen that satellite technology remained the driving force behind most developed and developing economies.
According to him, since the establishment of the Space Agency in 1999, efforts by Nigeria to attain space capabilities have focused on research and rigorous space education.
He said that this had resulted to the design and manufacture of satellite instrumentation; software development; rockets or small satellites; satellite data acquisition; digital image processing; remote sensing and geo-information and communication technology.
He said that over time, space technology had become crucial to tackling global challenges in various countries and Nigeria could not afford to jettison the measures.
“World over satellite technology is being used to solve problems in different countries; there are scientific problems that cannot be solved on this earth except it is done in the space.
“A number of things have been discovered using space science and technology in the international space stations and Nigeria can do the same, especially in finding a permanent solution to malaria and other things.
“The issue of malaria is our problem it’s not a problem of the West, so why are we waiting for the West to solve it for us and charge in foreign currency?
“There’s no problem other international space stations are solving that Nigeria can’t do, it’s just that the use of satellite is not really encouraged in Nigeria and this affects the economy greatly.’’
According to Onuh, space based technologies such as earth observation satellite, communications satellite, meteorological satellite and global navigation satellite system played important roles in early warnings, disaster monitoring, assessment and management.
He said that there were many more satellite data and imageries and when put to use would aid Nigeria’s Communication, agricultural, educational and health sectors among others to solve their challenges and advance the sector.
“The MDAs that are the major drivers of the economy are not taking advantage of these; sometimes, they prefer to buy the same facilities from overseas even when they can get it here at a cheaper price.’’
He said that CSTD had the capacity to offer most of the services that were being sourced from foreign satellites and had been enlightening stakeholders about its products and services but were seldom used.
He said that it was regrettable that Nigerians preferred to import foreign satellites services even when they could source same within.
He warned that such trend, if not checked would impact negatively not only on the Nigerian space agency, but the economy at large.
He said that the country would continue to lose more resources to capital flight if the trend was not addressed.
He urged the Federal Government to mandate Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to employ satellite technology in their day to day activities to boost the economy.
He said that there was an urgent need for MDAs to maximise satellite technology to enable Nigeria to expedite the resolution of its economic challenges for sustainable development.
Newsmen reports that CSTD, one of the six activity centres of the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), is mandated to design and manufacture satellites.