China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) handed the recently launched NigComSat 1-R to its Nigeria counterpart on Monday at the Obasanjo Space Center in Abuja.

NigComSat 1-R, which was launched on Dec. 20, 2011 and successfully positioned in its geostationary orbit a week later, has completed the in-orbit test and is ready to hand over to Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) for commercial operation, said Yin Liming, the CGWIC president.

CGWIC is fully prepared for the immediate takeoff of the following-on satellite program, namely Nigcomsat 2 and Nigcomsat3, with all technical and contractual details discussed and agreed, he said.

"I am indeed very delighted to receive the symbol of our proudly renounced satellite - NigComSat 1 replacement from the China Great Wall Industry Corporation. This event marks the beginning of full commercialization of the satellite for the benefit of Nigeria and indeed the Africa continent and the global community," said Turner T. Isoun, the NIGCOMSAT board chairman.

Nigeria's communications satellite NigComSat 1 was successfully launched in 2007 in China but de-orbited in November 2008 due to malfunction of the solar array deployment assembly. China decided in 2009 to build NigComSat 1-R to replace the defunct one without adding additional costs to Nigeria.

NigComSat-1R, covering Central, Western and Southern Africa, Central and Eastern part of Europe, and some areas of Mid-Asia, will be mainly used for communications, broadcasting, tele- education, broad-band multimedia service and navigation service.