SCIENCE and Technology Minister Prof. Turner Isoun yesterday in Abuja listed the benefits of images and data being received from the NigeriaSat-1.
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Isoun spoke amid clarifications by President Olusegun Obasanjo that the nation's ambitions space programme was not aimed at taking it into space.
Speaking at the opening of a national workshop on satellite remote sensing, the minister said that the images and data would be used for mapping hydrocarbon and other mineral deposits potential in the Benue Trough and for agricultural land use planning and management in the Kadawa irrigation scheme in Kano State.
Other areas where the data would be beneficial include water resources development and management, gully erosion mapping and monitoring in parts of the South-East, coastal and beach erosion studies in Lagos, coastal line as well as mapping of flood hazards and risk along Kaduna River and Shirro Dam in Kaduna and Niger states.
Also, the NigeriaSat-1 data and images would be used for deforestation studies in the South-West, as well as for the development of some tourism potential in the country.
The outcome of studies, which Isoun said are being carried out on the data, would enable Nigeria to adequately apply the images and data received from the satellite for socio-economic development.
He urged stakeholders in satellite remote sensing to use images and data from NigeriaSat-1 and other Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) satellites for the inventory and management of natural resources and environment.
He also disclosed that various public and private organisations were making efforts to evaluate and validate data from the satellite, in order to enhance its application and commercial value.
"The NigeriaSat-1 is performing excellently and has been sending quality images and data it captures from different parts of the world to its ground station located at Asokoro in Abuja," Isoun said.
According to him, experts from various disciplines, establishment and institutions, including the private sector, have been mobilised and financially supported to carry out various studies using images and data from NigeriaSat-1.
At the same occasion, President Obasanjo said that rather than aiming at going into space, the nation delved into the satellite programme to seek solutions to its numerous socio-economic problems.
His words: "The Sat-1 programme is not really meant to take us into space, but we are using science and technology to do what we need in our socio-economic development. We must use the most effective tool to fast-track Nigeria's development."
The President, who admitted that the country had a myriad of problems to settle on ground before venturing into space, said however, that the country had a lot of benefits to derive from the initiative into space science.
"There was initial understandable concerns over the nation's space programme from both within and outside the country," he said, noting that those initial concerns have now been transformed into optimism and high expectations.
"If you listen to the reasons, the advantages, we are a little late, but better late than never, I was delighted we took the decision," he added.
Obasanjo said that it was because of the importance his administration attached to the programme that approval was given for work to commence on NigeriaSat-1, adding that the project would be utilised in many areas including the 2005 census because with the facility in place, past doubts on the authenticity of figures presented from some parts of the country would be rested.
The President said that with NigeriaSat-1, "we can now see the actual population of any village". Citing an example, he said village with say 30 roofs on the satellite would not be able to say it had a population of 10,000.
"We now have a tool to help us fight the problems of the past, including disaster management, mineral deposits, irrigation, gully erosion and tourism development, among others," Obasanjo added.
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