BY VICTORIA OJEME
ABUJA—To save the nation $450 million annual capital flight, plans have reached advance stage by Nigeria Communication Satellite, NIGCOMSAT Limited, to launch a new communication satellite into orbit in December, to replace the ill-fated SAT 1 , de-orbited in 2008, due to technical hitches .

Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Ita-Okon Bassey Ewa, said this at NIGCOMSAT’s stakeholders’ conference in Abuja, weekend.

This came as the first Nigerian Internet Exchange point was unveiled in Abuja, as part of measures to reduce the cost of internet connectivity in the country.

The minister said:
“It is with great anticipation that we now await the launch of the replacement satellite, NigComSat-1R, scheduled for the end of this year. It is being planned that this launch will be followed later by NigComSat-2 and 3.”

Ewa said the country spent over $450m yearly on the importation of bandwidth from Europe and America to facilitate internet access, telephony and broadcasting in the country.

He assured that with the proposed launch of the replacement satellite, the revenue made from Nigeria on bandwidth by other countries would be retained in the country and used for the nation’s development.

“This will reduce our over dependence on oil and create additional revenue streams for our nation,” he said.
In a related development, the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, has commissioned the Abuja office of the Nigerian Internet Exchange point, IXPN.

Director-General of NITDA, Cleopas Angaye, who spoke on the occasion, stated that IXPN would, henceforth, interconnect Internet Service Providers in Nigeria, “allowing them to exchange domestic internet traffic locally without having to send those messages across multiple international hops to reach their destination.

He recalled that in the absence of IXPN, the internet traffic originating from one ISP to the destination of another ISP within Nigeria had to make a round-the-world trip , thus consuming international bandwidth and resulting in capital flight out of the country.

Aganye added that the benefits of in-country IXPN, among others include, ‘savings in capital flight, attraction of content hosting in Nigeria, employment opportunities, revenue opportunities through local content and services.

He stressed that the unveiling of the IXPN would also enhance video/audio streaming, video-conferencing, telemedicine, E-commerce, E-learning, E-governance and internet gaming among others.

The NITDA helmsman stated that the IXPN initiative would provide a veritable platform for promoting so many IT initiatives, including the National Research and Educational Network, NREN, cluster within Abuja and its environs

“We are already working with the University of Lagos to have such a cluster in Lagos, called the Lagos Higher Education Connectivity Project, LHECP,”he said.