With the cooperation of China, Nigeria is expected to set up a satellite telecommunications network covering half of the African population.

The African country took another step toward realizing this goal when Nigerian Communications Satellite signed a framework agreement with China Great Wall Industry Corporation in Beijing on March 28.

Under the agreement, China Great Wall Industry Corporation will launch two satellites developed and produced by Chinese enterprises into orbit for Nigeria.

Nigeria's Telecommunications Minister Adebayo Shittu, who attended the signing ceremony, said the two satellites will greatly improve the country's telecommunications, and will help boost the country's economy and safeguard its national security.

He said China's assistance in launching the satellites is testimony to the friendly ties between the two nations over the past 45 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Such cooperation not only exists between the two governments, but also between the two countries' private sectors in areas ranging from telecommunications to health and smart city building, he added.

The minister invited more Chinese telecommunications enterprises to invest in Nigeria and lift the level of the nation's telecommunications industry.

The collaboration in satellite communication technology between the two countries started in 2007.

Nigeria is the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to own and operate a telecommunications satellite, which was also launched by China.

Aside from the satellites to be launched by China, Nigeria also has an ambitious space program. According to a CNN report on April 6, Nigeria plans to send an astronaut into space by 2030, as part of its drive to develop a world-class space industry.

"The space program is very important," Minister of Science and Technology Ogbonnaya Onu reportedly said in a speech in Abuja. "Space is a major asset that Nigeria must be involved in for the purpose of protecting its national interests."

The report said a Nigerian Space Agency delegation will visit partners in China in April to discuss logistics and investment for a manned space mission, which would be the first by an African nation.

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(China Daily 04/12/2016 page7)