From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is proposing to spend N4.305 billion on the NIGCOMSAT 2 project, establish a digital park and maintain the digital girls’ club portal.
The NigComSat-2 project, which is still in its preliminary phase (as only the Request for Proposals (RFP) has been sent out), will be a public-private partnership (PPP). The NigComSat-2 satellite will be a High Throughput Satellite (HTS) with a total throughput of 300 Gbps. It will also include triband spacecraft – C band for Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) systems to provide the most vital telecommunication link between a satellite and ground station; Ka-band; and Ku-band.
While the digital park will gulp N1 billion, the girls’ club portal maintenance will cost N5,343,541 and the NIGCOMSAT 2 project is proposed to cost N3.3 billion.
The ministry also plans to spend N32,389,006 on Women Connect Programme and an additional N40,376,422 on the ICT girls’ competition empowerment programme.
Other items in the ministry’s 2022 budget include N43,413,867 earmarked for the ICT SME Expo and
N350 million for digital job creation.
A new project called the National e-Waste Recycling Scheme was captured in the 2022 appropriation and N24,661,237 was budgeted for it. Another new project – Digital Nigerian Day Celebration – will gulp N50,838,522. N16,080,877 is for National e-signature/authentication infrastructure. The promotion of digital innovation and skills forum is another new project that is expected to gulp N25 million.
Solar energy power is also a new project with N15,147,720 earmarked for it. N502,040,000 is for a new project called Satellite Broadband and Rural Connectivity. NIGCOMSAT ground station upgrade will cost N498 million.
Overall, the ministry’s budget is N160,593,469,686. Out of this, N22,708,261,674 was earmarked for personnel expenditure while N679,734,944 was set aside for overhead. For capital expenditure, the ministry will spend N137,205,473,068.