A report published by the Economic Intelligence Unit in the United States has revealed that Nigeria lost $126 million (N20billion) in dropped calls, due to poor communication infrastructure in the West African country.
This revelation did not go down well with industry stakeholders in the country, with Director General of the National Air Space and Research Development Agency, NASRDA, Prof Seidu Mohammed, coming out to state that these loses could have been avoided by using modern communication satellites.
Prof Mohammed was speaking at a commemoration lecture to mark the launch of the first communication satellite, Syncom2 in July 26, 1963, and later the first conversation via satellite between the First Nigerian Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and American President, John Kennedy in August 23 1963.
“The Friday August 23, 1963 conversation between the two eminent leaders was more than a call. It was indeed the first two way call across the Atlantic between Heads of state via Satellite in the global history,” Prof Mohammed said.
He said that it was unfortunate that the country could lose such an insurmountable amount in dropped calls, yet “revenue for services from communications satellite in 2011 alone was $90 billion comprising of satellite TV, Satellite radio and broadband.”
For this reason, Nigeria Space Programme has embarked on ensuring that it employs use of modern satellite communication to carter for the needs of the raising West African population, currently estimated to stand at 392 million people.
