The Nigerian government has agreed to spend 10.5 billion naira (93.75 million dollars) on a satellite project over the next three years, but is not yet planning to put Nigerians in space, officials said Friday.
President Olusegun Obasanjo and his cabinet earlier this week approved the setting up of a National Space Council, headed by the president, to oversee the project.
“This is a serious project, we are planning, with serious benefits for Nigerians, in terms of science, weather plotting, agriculture and communications,” Science and Technology Minister Turner Isoun told AFP Friday.
Asked whether Nigeria would soon join other nations which have put a citizen into space, he said: “That is not a priority right now.”
A western financial official, charged with overseeing the economic planning of the heavily-indebted African country, said he understood the arguments for a space programme, but disagreed.
“A space programme? Why not. But perhaps thinking about the health needs, education, roads, paying peoples salaries and so on ought to be higher up the list.”
Nigeria currently has a foreign debt of between 28 and 32.3 billion dollars and its president is a strong proponent of debt relief.
An initial ‘take-off’ grant for the space council of three billion naira (26.7 million dollars) has already been paid out and will be followed by yearly allocations of 2.5 billion naira, officials said Friday.
The aim of the project is to launch a satellite communications system and carry out space capability research, they said.
