Nigeria’s sole operational communication satellite, the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat) has announced ₦2.2 billion ($1.6 million) in revenue in 2025, amid satellite dispute with a Chinese company.
CEO of NigComSat, Nkechi Jane Egerton-Idehen, who made the announcement, said the 2025 figure represents an increase from ₦650 million ($470,854) in 2024, and it comes amid a dispute over $11.4 million in unpaid fees to a Chinese business, raising concerns about the future of the company.
According to Egerton-Idehen, the growth was not a one-time spike but rather a part of a planned trajectory.
At a news conference on Friday in Lagos, she stated, “It’s not going to be a flat line; it’s a growth curve.”
Broadcasting continues to be the main source of revenue for NigComSat, making up over 50% of overall earnings. More than half of Nigeria’s licensed broadcasters are supported by the corporation, according to Egerton-Idehen. Broadband capacity, which she claims is still vastly underutilised, will be essential to its next stage of expansion.
“Broadband is our greatest chance,” she stated. The path to ₦8 billion ($5.8 million) will start there.”
For a firm that spent years restoring client confidence following the loss of its first satellite in 2008 and years of dwindling trust in its services, the goal is noteworthy.
NigComSat claims to be focusing on a number of broadband market categories, such as enterprise connectivity, consumer internet, and infrastructure assistance for telecom operators.
An unresolved operational risk stands in the way of the growth ambitions. Nigeria’s sole operational communications satellite, NigComSat-1R, was designed to last 15 years, but thanks to technological advancements, its lifespan has been extended until 2028. That year, and then again in 2029, the government intends to replace it with a new satellite.
However, in the meanwhile, concerns regarding the satellite’s dependability have been raised by an ongoing financial and operational disagreement with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), which oversees it.
Egerton-Idehen acknowledged the gaps that the business had to fill. “We needed to reclaim customers,” she stated. Due of earlier experiences, some people fled and never came back. These gaps—service quality, awareness, and technological advancements—are currently being filled.
Cellular backhaul, which uses satellite capacity to link distant mobile base stations to core networks, is a significant growth area for NIGCOMSAT. This is especially important in rural Nigeria, where it is frequently not cost-effective to install fibre infrastructure.
With Adamawa, Gombe, Cross River, and Imo already utilising NigComSat’s services for connectivity and digital infrastructure projects, state governments have also become a significant customer sector.
NigComSat is strategically important to Nigeria’s defence and security framework in addition to providing commercial services. In places like forests and offshore waters that lack terrestrial network coverage, satellite technology allows safe, real-time communication.
Egerton-Idehen clarified that in order to transmit speech, video, and data back to command centers, military operations rely on satellite-enabled devices deployed on moving assets like armoured vehicles and navy ships.
”Satellite becomes the only option in environments where there is no mobile coverage,” she stated. It is essential for national security because it can be used on anything that moves or doesn’t move.”
