Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence, Senator Ahmad Lawan, has assured that the Defence Space Administration, DSA, will be given adequate funding in the 2024 budget to enable the agency discharge its mandate effectively.
Lawan made this known, on Thursday, when the management of the DSA appeared before the Senate Committee on Defence to defend its budget estimates for the 2024 fiscal year.
He added that improved funding for the DSA became imperative in view of the evolving security challenges confronting the nation.
Lawan said, “This is an opportunity for the Defence Space Administration to interact with the Committee on Defence to largely explain what happened in the 2023 Appropriation, how far you have been able to implement the projects as it relates to Defence Space Administration.
“It is also an opportunity for you to disclose if you have benefitted from the supplementary appropriation 2022 in which special attention was given to the Defence sector.
“Let me assure you on behalf of my colleagues, that this committee is going to work with your administration to ensure that you discharge your mandate successfully.
“We believe you’re doing a good work already, but you probably need more resources and attention to ensure that you discharge your mandate optimally.
“We know the resources have not been sufficient, but we want to ensure that there is going to be reasonable and significant improvement to what you were getting before 2024.”
“The idea of securing the country is never cheap and it is much more expensive when the country is already in a dire situation with so many security challenges all over,” Lawan added.
The head of the agency, Air Vice Marshal Ahmed Abdullahi Shinkafi, in his presentation, disclosed that the sum of N6,284,786,717.00 was appropriated to the DSA in 2023.
He added that out of the amount, N1,922,736,282.00 was for personnel emolument; N298,632,998.00 for overhead cost; and N4,063,417,437.00 for capital projects.
Shinkafi explained that the amount appropriated to the DSA in 2023 for the execution of capital projects was used for the development of the National Defence Space School, development of DSA town in Abuja, development of National Defence Space Communication Satellite Centre, and upgrade of software for Cyber Space Operations at DSA headquarters, amongst others.