NASRDA refutes UK claims to funding Nigeria' space programme

The Director-General, National Space Research and Development Agency, Prof. Seidu Mohammed, has described the claims by a member of the European Parliament, Mr. Godfrey Bloom, that the Nigerian Space Programme is being funded with aid from the British government as mischievous and untrue.

He stated this in Abuja on Tuesday at a press conference called to dispel Bloom's claim.

A statement by the Head, Media and Corporate Communications, NASRDA, Mr. Felix Ale,  quoted Mohammed as saying that the agency had not at any time received financial aid or grant from the United Kingdom for the space programme beside the existing cordial relationship established with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, a UK-based company, which was purely on commercial basis.

'Nigeria, as a signatory to the International Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space as a Resource for Mankind, and as a sovereign nation, does not require anybody to educate her on what to do,' the NASRDA boss said.