On 13th August 2020, Government of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on space cooperation with the Federal government of Republic of Nigeria at the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.
Over a virtual platform, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology, Federal Republic of Nigeria and Abhay Thakur, Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria signed the MoU on behalf of Nigeria and India respectively.
Note – On the occasion, both sides also agreed to sign a subsidiary MOU between New Space India Limited (NSIL), under ISRO, and Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), under the Federal Ministry of Environment of Nigeria, on cooperation in use of Geospatial Technologies.
Key People:
V Muraleedharan, Minister of State(MoS) for External Affairs, Government of India, Col. Saghih Dubey, Defence attaché of the Indian High Commission, Dr. Francis Chizea, Acting DG of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) witnessed the signing ceremony over a virtual platform.
Features:
i.The MoU is focused on the collaboration in the exploration and uses of outer space technologies for peaceful purposes.
ii.The MoU enhances the Socio economic development, space exploration, environmental safety and trade between India and Nigeria.
iii.This would transform the resource based economy of Nigeria into a knowledge and innovation driven economy.
iv.This will expand the collaboration of India and Nigeria in the field of Agriculture, Space technology, defence and advancement in global peace.
Benefits of the MoU:
i.Planning and implementing joint space projects of mutual interests and benefits.
ii.Establishing ground stations for better data reception.
iii.Sharing of equipment, documentations, data, experiment results, development of micro and mini satellites for commercial and scientific purposes.
iv.Joint projects in launch service, operations and satellite utilisation.
v.Promotes industrial collaboration between the national companies and national institutes of space technologies of both the countries.
vi.Exchange programmes and training exercises in the field of space for academic institutes of both india and nigeria.
Key Points:
i.Nigeria had developed and launched four Earth Observation satellites – NigeriaSat-1, NigeriaSat-2, NigeriaSat-X and NigeriaEduSat-1 and two communication satellites – NigComSat-1 and NigComSat-1R.
ii.India is the largest trade partner of Nigeria with a trade volume of around 13.8 billion USD.
iii.Nigeria provides around 10% of the energy requirements of India.
Recent Related News:
i.India-European Union Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation renewed for next five years (2020- 2025)
ii.India’s CERT and Israel’s INCD inked MoU to expand cooperation in cyber security
About Nigeria:
President– Muhammadu Buhari
Capital– Abuja
Currency– Nigerian naira
About Ministry of External Affairs:
Union Minister– Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar(Elected to Rajya Sabha from Gujarat)
Minister of State– V. Muraleedharan
