President Bola Tinubu has approved the acquisition of two additional communication satellites for Nigeria — NigComSat 2A and 2B as the country marked two decades of sovereign space capability at the opening of the Nigerian Satellite Week 2026 in Abuja on Monday March 30, 2026.
NIGCOMSAT Managing Director Jane Egerton-Idehen announced the presidential approval at the opening ceremony of the event themed “Harnessing Space Technology for an Extraordinary Nigeria.” “This approval by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a clear demonstration of Nigeria’s recognition of space as a driver of national development and sovereignty,” she said.
NigComSat 2A is scheduled for launch in 2028 and 2B in 2029. Both satellites are expected to provide security intelligence, surveillance and regional connectivity capabilities. “When they are up and running, they are expected to provide security within the borders and neighbouring countries.
They will support the security agencies because data collection and intelligence in real time is important,” Egerton-Idehen said.
Nigeria currently accounts for nearly 20 percent of Africa’s satellite capacity with over eight government agencies actively engaged in space-related programmes. NIGCOMSAT has grown from a single-satellite operator to a multi-service provider with revenue that has doubled in recent years, a Low Earth Orbit partnership with Eutelsat and strategic cooperation with the Kenya Space Agency.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Dr Bosun Tijani announced the launch of a N12 billion Research Cluster Fund to engage 36 professors alongside nearly 200 postgraduate and PhD researchers cementing the link between academic research and industrial space applications. He noted that the satellites will complement Nigeria’s ongoing investment in 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable and nearly 4,000 telecom towers being rolled out nationwide and extended to neighbouring countries including Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Benin Republic.
“Satellite technology affects everything, from how a child in a rural community accesses the internet to how farmers make critical decisions and how businesses operate across distance,” Tijani said, describing Nigeria as the only African nation with operational communication satellites and calling that leadership a continental responsibility.
