Nigeria aims high with space programme

Nigeria, one of the world's poorest countries, is to launch its own space programme in the form of an agency that will develop rocket and satellite technology.

Transport Minister Ojo Madueke said the Government had allocated three billion naira ($6.7 million) for the programme and that the agency would receive 2.5 billion naira a year in the next three years with the aim of becoming self-financing.

Although Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest oil exporter, it has an external debt of $70 billion and a per capita annual income of $743.