The Nigerian space economy can help the country out of its present economic crisis by the promoting socio-economic growth and addressing the governments top priorities and this is what the management of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) through its director general, Dr. Halilu Ahmed Shaba has been doing since he came into office a little over two years ago.
The global economic meltdown occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic worsened our country’s ailing economy and there was an urgent need to improve the economic outlook of the country by looking at other sources for the needed recovery.
The management of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASDRA), through its director general, Dr. Halilu Shaba, showed leadership by helping the country to look up to the space industry for its economic recovery and reconstruction.
Through his well though out space related initiatives and innovations, Nigeria was able to create a lot of financial opportunities to aid it’s social developments needs. These initiatives has made the country a very special and important player and a leading light in the continent of Africa space industry. Nigeria is today regarded as one of the very few countries in the continent of Africa with the engineering capabilities to completely design satellites communications technologies and working on producing its own rather than depending on procuring these technological products and services from foreign partners in the nearest future.
The director general of the national space research and development agency (NASRDA) is making sure that the agency and its ecosystem of partners are delivering on an array of government priorities relating to the development in three(3) key areas: environment and resource management, health, safety and and security, and innovations and economic growth.
Today there is a lot of positive momentum being created around the vision and reforms of the space sector of the country by the director general of the agency, Dr. Halillu Shaba, and this is translating into a vivid growth in the Nigerian space economy with it’s multiplier effects on the nation’s economic growth outlook.
We now see a significant growth trajectory in terms of project pipelines coming out from the space economy. The agency is now trying to drive the growth as strongly as possible and if it push forward over the next four years, the revenue stream will increase approximately. Today also the local space ecosystem is poised to help Nigeria unlock its economic growth potentials and cement its place in the global space landscape.
Our space sector through this reforms by the director general is now looking going forward at the competitive sectors that will contribute to higher GDP growth in Nigeria through the space sector.
A recent space economy report conducted by a global organisation shows there are high returns on space economy investments in the world. Considering the new funding opportunities available in Nigeria, you can imagine how much growth that it could bring into the economy.
It is very important to note that the space sector in Nigeria has never been better and this is because of the managerial inputs and reforms of Dr. Halillu Shaba.
– Musa Wada writes from Abuja.
