Satellite programme is threatened, says Boroffice
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology has expressed trepidation over the rate at which funds are being released for Nigeria’s satellite development programme.
“I am very unhappy,” Senator Robert A. Boroffice said, “that after many years, the National Space Research and Development Agency’s (NASRDA’s) assembly and integration complex is still unfinished”.
Speaking to The Guardian from Ondo State, Boroffice—NASRDA’s founding chief executive officer— complained further, that the project was now suffering another severe blow, from the current recession.
Under the Federal Government’s 25 Year Development Plan, the Centre for Satellite Technology Development, housed at NASRDA headquarters, is charged with constructing indigenous satellites.
“But we are still a long way from achieving that objective,” Boroffice lamented. “And the current economic crunch certainly is not going to help matters”.
The Senator heads an 11-member committee, which oversees all Federal science and technology projects, to ensure that the parastatals implementing them comply with Government guidelines.
But up to the end of August, the chairman revealed, “no parastatal has received any disbursement for capital expenditures. So oversight function is reverting to the Ministry of Science and Technology.”
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