General News
National Security: Why we Need Military and Commercial Synergies to be Profitable
At no other time in recent history has Space-based technology played a vital role than it has in the past few years.
A new era of quick response modes, often greatly enhanced by Commercial Communications Satellite technology has become obsolete necessity for national security.
Therefore, we need to transform the way we do communications today. But there is some discussion on how commercial elements fit into this picture.
When you are fighting a war, even in the most built-out Country in the world with an established Communication infrastructure, it can all be suddenly disrupted. We go in prepare with food, water, tanks and ammunition, as well as communication equipment obviously.
So we believe there will be a major need for enhancements from the military community for both their military and their commercial satellite communications, at least in our lifetime.
Commercial entities need to understand military requirements, government planners need to understand commercial capabilities, and civil commercial space firms need a place at the table.
THE FORECAST:
- There is a greater emphasis put on satellite communications and the increased need for more commercials system involvement.
- This procurement increase need to be realized as the nation now addresses the new terrorist threat that has emerged in the arena of national security.
- A report predicts that topline growth throughout the next 10years will be slow and steady with a high priority for procurement over time.
- There are projections that have been done and what they show is a lot of different uses for bandwidth.
- No longer will there just be the traditional communications (Voice and Message) and not just internet of types of applications that are going to be running in dynamic scenarios.
- We also recognize a growing need for a stronger communication infrastructure considering the bandwidth on demand problems currently facing the security and the forces.
- We believe the emergency/Military advantage is linked to the ability to use information and push information from sensors systems to decision makers and from decision makers to doers/shooters, and to do it rapidly and then to do it in a way that they can share that awareness among the operators.
All of that takes bandwidth and we need to have a source for that bandwidth.
- Ubiquitous Satellite Communications and unlimited bandwidth seems the destiny of the world. But most of the time it doesn’t turn out that way.
- Depending on the extent of damaged during a disaster or crisis to the communications infrastructure, the commercial sector may satisfy its appetite (to some extent for voice and message only) for bandwidth largely with fiber optics and terrestrial based cellular phones.
- However, these Services are not directly applicable to many important needs of the expeditionary emergency/military operations.
- This understanding of the need to increase bandwidth for emergency/military use has sprung from lessons learned in the field, channeling data and communications among the active theaters has proven, at times, challenging during the Persian Gulf war-which we still think of as being a pretty high-tech-war an air wing on an aircraft carrier had less access to bandwidth for data transfer than anyone whose home was equipped with a standard telephone modem.
- Today we think that it could take 200 times more bandwidth than that in order to prosecute two major emergencies/wars at the same time.
- In addition to widening the bandwidth for Emergency/Military customers, information satellite imagery produced by the commercial imaging companies is yet another venue where stronger military/commercial synergies can prove profitable.
- Today, with current occurrences in the North-East of Nigeria, NEMA need to order roughly 500, 000 square kilometers of imagery over the crisis region.
- The Agency need to significantly invest to tune up its infrastructure so as to be able to provide the needed satellite imagery very quickly.
- The agencies out-year requirements should not only be imagery, but for satellite-based products as well.
- As the government recognize the value commercial imagery brings to the table, the security sector will grow in terms of geospatial and imagery information products and services
- The key driver in this budget growth right now is this commercial remote sensing industry coming online.
- The Nigerian government needs to as an anchor tenant in this industry as it forms.
- The Future:
- The appropriate role of the government in facilitating commercial space business is naturally an ongoing debate. But the outcome depends on whether the debate more closely focuses on:
- Enhanced Communications
- Military-Specific Satellite programs/emergency operations
- Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) information products.
- We believe that the military and the commercial satellite communications arena ate Linked together at the hip, at least during this time.
- Commercial satellite will always have that reach-back capability that is vital for successful communications during emergencies military operations.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery is reportedly nearing completion of a $2.5 billion private placement that values the company at about $40 billion ahead of its planned public listing.
Private placement is the direct sale of company shares or bonds to pre-selected investors instead of the general public and it is used to raise money quickly while avoiding strict public reporting rules.
People familiar with the transaction said investors acquired as much as 6 per cent of the refinery, according to a BusinessDay report.
The reported terms would value the business at approximately $40 billion.
Neither Dangote Group nor the refinery has publicly announced the final amount raised, the identities of most subscribers or the precise percentage sold.
The figures should therefore be treated as transaction details supplied by unnamed sources rather than confirmed company disclosures.
The reported $2.5 billion total is nevertheless significant as it indicates strong demand for exposure to a privately controlled refinery that has rapidly become central to Nigeria’s fuel supply and an increasingly important exporter of petroleum products.
The placement was said to have attracted more demand than the available shares, allowing the company to secure substantially more than the amount initially associated with the fundraising exercise.
Femi Otedola, chairman, First HoldCo, is the only major participant publicly identified in the report.
He reportedly committed $100 million to the transaction and sold his investment in Geregu Power Plc to finance the acquisition.
Nigeria’s pension industry was also reportedly cleared to participate.
Access to more than $17 billion in retirement assets would broaden the refinery’s potential investor base beyond wealthy individuals and conventional institutional buyers.
Participation by Pension Fund Administrators would, however, require careful attention to valuation, liquidity and portfolio-concentration limits.
Retirement funds must balance the attraction of a large Nigerian industrial asset against their responsibility to protect contributors’ savings.
The implied $40 billion valuation represents investor expectations about the refinery’s future earnings rather than only the physical cost of constructing the facility.
Its ability to process 650,000 barrels of crude daily gives it a central role in supplying Nigeria and other markets, but its commercial performance remains connected to crude availability, product prices, exchange rates and regulation.
The refinery has struggled to obtain all the Nigerian crude it requires under the government’s naira-for-crude arrangement.
It has consequently purchased some feedstock internationally and recently moved local petroleum-product pricing into dollars to align sales revenue more closely with its foreign-currency expenses.
Those constraints will be important during any public offering.
Prospective shareholders will want greater clarity on crude-supply contracts, debt, operating margins, export revenue and the company’s relationship with Nigerian regulators.
It is also unclear whether the private placement involved newly issued shares, a sale by existing owners or a combination of both.
That distinction determines whether the reported $2.5 billion becomes fresh capital for the refinery or proceeds received by selling shareholders.
The transaction could provide a useful price reference for the planned initial public offering.
Federal government will next month launch Nigeria’s first national organized crime strategy to strengthen the country’s response to terrorism, cybercrime, human and drug trafficking, kidnapping, illicit financial flows, and other forms of organized crime.
Major General Adamu Laka, national coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre under the Office of the National Security Adviser, disclosed this in Abuja during the validation of the strategy document.
He said the strategy provides a coordinated national framework for tackling organized crime through improved intelligence sharing, stronger collaboration among security agencies, and closer cooperation with the criminal justice system, civil society organizations, and international partners.
Major General Laka explained that the document was developed through a partnership involving the Federal Government, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United States Government, and other stakeholders.
Speaking at the event, Cheikh Toure, UNODC representative, said the strategy would strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to combat transnational crimes, including drug trafficking, cybercrime, human trafficking, kidnapping, and illicit financial flows.
Also speaking, Douglas Grane, acting director of the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, reaffirmed the U.S. government’s support for Nigeria’s efforts to tackle organized crime through stronger inter-agency and international cooperation.
Representatives of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, and the National Cyber Security Centre also endorsed the initiative, describing it as a major step towards improving Nigeria’s fight against organized crime.
FATE Foundation, with funding from the Citi Foundation, has launched the Youth Entrepreneurship Incubation Programme to equip young people in Nigeria with financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills.
Delivered through free, safe, and accessible platforms, the programme supports the incubation and scaling of youth-led enterprises, enabling income generation and job creation.
In October 2025, FATE Foundation was selected as a recipient of Citi Foundation’s 2025 Global Innovation Challenge to Accelerate Youth Employability. Joining the cohort of 50 organisations globally, the Foundation will receive $500,000 over two years to advance its youth employability initiative.
“We are excited to be selected for Citi Foundation’s 2025 Global Innovation Challenge,” said Ayomide Akindolie-Igwe, Executive Director of FATE Foundation.
“This support enables us to equip young entrepreneurs in Nigeria with the financial literacy and skills needed to build and scale sustainable businesses.”
The programme addresses youth employability by tackling Africa’s growing jobs crisis. By 2030, the African continent will be home to 40% of the world’s youth, and with one in three under 35 already unemployed, this initiative will support Nigerian youth with a two-phase approach. It begins with financial literacy training before progressing to entrepreneurship development, incubation support, and access to tools needed to build viable, job-creating businesses.
“Through this innovative initiative, FATE Foundation is supporting low-income Nigerian youth to develop essential financial and entrepreneurial skills using accessible platforms.
“This support is not just helping individuals to succeed; it is building a solid foundation for sustainable enterprises that will drive job creation and contribute significantly to our nation’s economic vitality. This initiative is empowering and investing in the future of Nigeria, one youth at a time,” said Nneka Enwereji, MD/CEO Citibank Nigeria Limited.
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