Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the launch of four new satellites in May 2025, according to statements from the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) in February 2026. The then-Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, disclosed the FEC approval on 14 May 2025 at the 22nd National Council on Innovation, Science and Technology (NCIST) in Abuja. The council met from 12 to 14 May under the theme “Research, Develop, Innovate and Commercialize: A Cycle for National Prosperity”, a session originally scheduled for 2024 and postponed to 2025.
Uche Nnaji said the package covers three Earth observation satellites and one synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite; a system that uses radar rather than optical sensors so it can capture images at night, in rainfall, and under cloud cover. He framed the acquisition as a security tool as much as a scientific one, noting that Nigerian forces currently pay for commercial satellite imagery when tracking targets in dense terrain such as the Sambisa forest, a Boko Haram stronghold in Borno State. “The military can use it effectively, unlike now, when we want to go and view Sambisa forest and some of these dungeons on guerrilla warfare, we have to buy images and data”.
The four-satellite concept predates the FEC approval. NASRDA announced a partnership with the Nigerian defence manufacturer Proforce Galaxies Limited in August 2024 to build the constellation, which the agency’s Director General, Dr Matthew Adepoju, described at the time as 3 optical satellites, reported under the working names NigeriaSat-3, NigeriaSat-4 and NigeriaSat-5, plus one SAR satellite. The FEC approval a year later formalized funding for that plan rather than introducing a new one.
The program advanced further in February 2026. Adepoju visited the Ministry of Defence’s Ship House headquarters in Abuja on 25 February; he met the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd), to discuss the planned four new satellites and greater coordination between NASRDA and the Defence Ministry. Christopher Musa called for closer coordination between NASRDA and the Defence Space Administration (DSA), the military’s dedicated space agency, “to ensure seamless integration of space assets into military operations and avoid duplication of efforts”, according to a ministry statement.
The new satellites would extend a capability the DSA established with DELSAT-1, Nigeria’s first dedicated military satellite. The DSA inaugurated DELSAT-1 at the Obasanjo Space Centre in Lugbe, Abuja, on 20 December 2022. DELSAT-1 was intended to support geospatial intelligence, tracking of armed groups, terrain mapping, vulnerability assessment, and monitoring of offshore infrastructure. At the inauguration, then-Chief of Defence Staff General Lucky Irabor, representing Defence Minister Major General Bashir Magashi (retd), said the military needed further funding to expand satellite capability.
Nigerian officials have since described DELSAT-1 as the first step in a broader plan to expand Nigeria’s military space capability. A report published in May 2026 noted that DELSAT-1’s 2022 launch marked “a turning point” toward sovereign surveillance data but that “the launch was only the beginning”, pointing to newer initiatives such as a Modular Earth Observation Outpost as evidence the program is still maturing.
NASRDA, formed in 1999 under the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, remains the civilian agency responsible for Nigeria’s broader space program, including earlier launches such as NigeriaSat-1 in 2003. The DSA, established after Acting President Yemi Osinbajo signed its enabling legislation into law on 3 February 2017, sits under the Ministry of Defence and operates military-specific space assets like DELSAT-1. The two agencies have overlapping interests in the new four-satellite package: NASRDA leads procurement and technical development, while the DSA is the eventual military end user of the SAR satellite’s all-weather imaging.
That overlap is precisely what Musa’s February 2026 call for “synergy” was meant to address. Nigeria’s Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) and its Forestall, Secure, Identify, Prepare and Implement (FSIPI) framework both depend on timely geospatial data, and duplicated satellite tasking between a civilian science agency and a military space administration would waste a limited budget. NASRDA’s 2023 annual budget was roughly ₦22.69 billion, a fraction of what a four-satellite constellation with SAR capability typically costs.
Nigeria’s security forces face threats, including banditry in the northwest and insurgency in the northeast, that often move under forest canopy or at night, conditions where optical satellites like DELSAT-1 are limited. A functioning SAR payload would let the DSA and NASRDA track militant movement and monitor porous sections of Nigeria’s roughly 4,000 km land border regardless of weather or time of day.