Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd. (NIGCOMSAT) has announced plans to generate N8 billion (some $5 million) in revenue within the next three years through expansion of its broadband services.
Mrs Jane Egerton-Idehen, managing director, NIGCOMSAT, disclosed this during a stakeholder roundtable event organised by the company in Lagos recently.
Egerton-Idehen said broadband remained the company’s most profitable but least utilised product line, with only seven per cent currently in use.
She said that about 93 percent of the satellite’s broadband capacity was still idle, despite its wide applications in education, healthcare, defence, financial services and governance.
“We know broadband has greater value and wider use cases, from connecting local government offices to supporting education, defence, healthcare and even fintech. The challenge is that we cannot do it alone,” she said.
She explained that while the country had recorded progress in broadband penetration, where utilisation rose from 35 percent in 2023 to 75 percent, NIGCOMSAT broadband remained largely untapped and required stronger collaboration with private sector partners.
Egerton-Idehen said NIGCOMSAT had already shown capacity to deliver broadband services through special projects.
She cited the provision of internet to naval ships, moving vessels, and local government secretariats in remote communities where terrestrial networks could not reach.
According to her, under Project 774, NIGCOMSAT successfully provided connectivity to 45 local government secretariats across eight states within two months, a task fibre cable operators could not achieve at the same speed.
She stressed that NIGCOMSAT’s 250 staff could not cover the entire market, hence the need for channel partners and resellers with wider reach and distribution capacity.
“Our role is to provide the service backbone and support partners to take it to the market.
“We are not set up to compete directly with consumer operators because we don’t have engineers in every state to do installations and support.
“However, by working with partners, we can reach schools, health centres, fintech companies and government agencies across Nigeria and even in West Africa,” she said.
