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Approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission is an important step toward growing Nigeria’s digital economy

The Nigerian Communications Commission recently granted E-Space Nigerian landing rights for E-Space’s impending low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation. The E-Space satellite system will provide communications services and connect Internet of Things (IoT) devices throughout Nigeria in many of the hardest to reach parts of the country — particularly those areas currently unserved by terrestrial providers.

Nigeria is among many African nations exploring how communications and IoT solutions can address a wide variety of challenges within its country, while also implementing solutions to grow the local economy. E-Space has a unique focus that goes beyond traditional IoT with its Smart-IoT solutions — where IoT is augmented with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) — to empower nations, businesses and communities with real-time, actionable intelligence that’s highly affordable.

Potential use cases include:

• Digital agriculture: Connected sensors can monitor soil moisture and temperature to help manage irrigation as well as seed and fertilizer transportation, storage and distribution.

• Healthcare: Monitoring of vaccine and other medical supplies can reduce waste and boost security.

• Energy: Sensors can supply 24/7 data for assets like oil and gas facilities, power stations and storage facilities.

• Smart cities: IoT-powered grids and traffic devices can make an enormous impact on traffic flow while also monitoring crime activity, managing waste disposal, water supplies and more.

By leveraging the vast amounts of data collected by IoT devices, E-Space’s space-based Smart-IoT system can help identify patterns, learn and continuously optimize performance and efficiencies to enable nations like Nigeria to achieve specific socio-economic goals. The permit for landing rights from the Nigerian Communications Commission sets the stage for E-Space to work with the country’s government, businesses and communities to build the ecosystem and applications required to expand the local economy and create new jobs in a range of fields, including engineering, data analysis and more.

This is an exciting step for E-Space, as we anticipate a great deal of activity all over Africa in the coming decade.

Amy Mehlman

Amy Mehlman is vice president, Global Affairs and Stakeholder Relations at E-Space. She is responsible for leading collaboration with international and domestic governments, partners and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to secure market access and establish international policies around space sustainability.