National Assembly Complex
Emma Okonji
The ICT Publishers Alliance has concluded every arrangement to hold a one day forum aimed at creating public awareness on the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat) Bill that is now before the National Assembly.
The forum, which is billed to hold next week in Lagos, is designed to create awareness on the Bill among all stakeholders and the general public with a view to raising public awareness on the formation of the law on NigComSat as conceived by the Bill.
The Bill, which seeks to establish NigComSat as a Corporation has already been passed by the House of Representatives in March 2012. The Bill is now set for deliberation at the Senate before it will eventually be sent to the President for assent. By this Act, all assets and liabilities of Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComsat) will be inherited by the new corporation.
As a corporation under an Act the affairs of the company shall be run by a Board of Directors of the Corporation which shall consist of a Chairman with relevant experience and other members to include a representative of the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology, a representative of the Federal Ministry of Finance, a representative of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Managing Director / CEO of the Corporation. Others are two Executive Directors of the Corporation and one person from the private sector appointed by the President.
It is also envisaged that the Act will position Nigcomsat Corporation to be more decisive and effective in the highly competitive communication satellite terrain where several privately owned and other governments owned companies are playing. The Act will empower NigComSat to engage in, purchase or otherwise acquire, or take over, all or any of the assets, business, company, firm or person in furtherance of any business relating to the satellite communications industry and to enforce all regulatory measures relating to the general control of the satellite communications sector.
Chairman of the Alliance, Mr. Aaron Ukodie said the one day stakeholders’ forum on NigComSat bill was part of the Alliance objective to bring to public consciousness industry issues so as to encourage participatory engagements of all stakeholders.
Expected at the forum are stakeholders from the private and public sectors of the economy including heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), CEOs of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies, telecom analysts, lawyers, the media, trade industry associations and members of the academic community.
NigComSat Limited is a government owned company with the mandate to launch and manage Nigerian Communications Satellites. The company already has a Communication Satellite, NigComSat 1R in orbit and plans to launch two other Satellites, NigComSat 2 and 3.
NigComSat 1R is Africa’s first communication satellite in space with footprints in 45 countries. NigComSat 1R is designed to provide backbone connectivity bandwidth chiefly for Nigeria and African countries, where bandwidth is still scarce and expensive. NigComSat 1 R is expected to be a major driver in addressing Nigeria’s broadband challenge. It is also expected to be the major provider of bandwidth to meet Nigeria’s strategic communications and security needs.