President Olusegun Obasanjo has cancelled a 700-million-dollar space satellite project on the grounds that the cost is grossly inflated, the newspaper The Guardian reported Sunday.
The project was recently approved by the cabinet, but after due consideration of the cost the president ordered that it be halted, the paper said.
Apart from the issue of cost, the president was said to have argued that the project was not a priority “now that basic issues affecting the ordinary citizens have not been provided.”
The paper said the decision has already been communicated to the minister concerned.
Before the cancellation, Nigeria had planned to launch two satellites into orbit within the first half of this decade.
The project, to be handled by UK satelitte systems maker Surrey Satellite Company, was expected to be jointly financed by the Nigerian government and the private sector.
