Nigerian Students Win the SAGE World Cup for the 6th time

The winners of the SAGE world cup 2013 were invited to make a presentation at the presidential lunch of Industrial Revolution Plan today

Nigeria has won the Students for Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) World Cup 2013 competition, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

It was organised by SAGE Global on Sunday Night in Abuja in collaboration with Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and other Federal Government agencies.

Nigeria was represented by Junior Secondary School (JSS), Jikwoyi, Abuja, and University of Calabar International School (UCIS), Calabar.

JSS took the lead in the Social Enterprises Business (SEB) category, while China emerged second and South Africa came third.

UCIS came second in the Social Responsibility Business (SRB) Category.

Prof. Curtis DeBerg, Global Coordinator of SAGE, who announced the result involving 11 countries, said Nigeria was leading in the integration of entrepreneurship in school curriculum.

Deberg said entrepreneurship was not well taught in any country but that Nigeria had taken the lead in integrating it.

Other countries that participated in the event included: USA, South Korea, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Russia and Singapore. Nigeria had won the SAGE World cup seven times by beating USA, Russia, China, Singapore, Canada South Africa, Great Britain and Ghana, among others.

Agwu Amogu, Africa Coordinator of SAGE, said it was established as part of efforts to galvanise the enormous creative energies and resources in the world to eradicate poverty.

According to him, it will teach beneficiaries entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills needed to be successful.

The Director-General of SMEDAN, Bature Masari, commended the two Nigerian schools for the victory and for retaining the cup.

Mr. Masari said the government was working round the clock to give youth empowerment a pride of place in the scheme of things.

“Right now, there is a new thinking in government to ensure that entrepreneurship development is given the needed support.

“That is why SMEDAN, which is the agency saddled with the responsibility of leading the fight for the development of SMEs in the country, is being repositioned, funded and empowered.

“This is to ensure that we continue to provide leadership and direction for SMEs and entrepreneurship development all over the country.’’

Mr. Masari said the hosting of the competition was an indication that the government “is ready to develop our youth and nation economically, socially and politically.’’

The competition, second to be hosted by Nigeria, and 11th in the series, is aimed at advancing youth entrepreneurship and community service.

It emphasises ethical business practices, social responsibility, civic engagement and environmental awareness.

Teenage entrepreneurs from around the world showcase their innovative business and community service projects to a panel of judges.

The competition has two major categories – Socially-Responsible Business (SRB) and Social Enterprise Business (SEB).

This  story was on the News Agency of Nigeria platform last year  .. if you want to know what SAGE is about you can visit their link here http://www.sageglobal.org

(NAN) and free online pix

Congratulations! Final Profession of Vows and Religious Commitment AFW in Ghana

Matthew Akinyemi celebrating his final profession with the salesian family. Congratulations

the Story of the 4 Nigerian Satellites

Four satellites have been launched by the Nigerian government into outer space. The Nigeriasat-1 was the first satellite to be built under the Nigerian government sponsorship. The satellite was launched from Russia on 27 September 2003. Nigeriasat-1 was part of the world-wide Disaster Monitoring Constellation System.The primary objectives of the Nigeriasat-1 were: to give early warning signals of environmental disaster; to help detect and control desertification in the northern part of Nigeria; to assist in demographicplanning; to establish the 

relationship between malaria vectors and the environment that breeds malaria and to give early warning signals on future outbreaks of meningitis using remote sensing technology; to provide the technology needed to bring education to all parts of the country through distant learning; and to aid in conflict resolution and border disputes by mapping out state and International borders.

(video clip from the Nigerian Television live broadcast of one of the satellite lunch)

NigeriaSat-2, Nigeria's second satellite, was built as a high-resolution earth satellite by Surrey Space Technology Limited, a United Kingdom-based satellite technology company. It has 2.5-metre resolution panchromatic (very high resolution), 5-metre multispectral (high resolution, NIR red, green and red bands), and 32-metre multispectral (medium resolution, NIR red, green and red bands) antennas, with a ground receiving station in Abuja.








The NigeriaSat-2 spacecraft alone was built at a cost of over £35 million.This satellite was launched into orbit from a military base in China.

NigComSat-1, a Nigerian satellite built in 2004, was Nigeria's third satellite and Africa's first communication satellite. It was launched on 13 May 2007, aboard a Chinese Long March 3B carrier rocket, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China.

 The spacecraft was operated by NigComSat and the Nigerian Space Agency, NASRDA. On 11 November 2008, NigComSat-1 failed in orbit after running out of power due to an anomaly in its solar array. It was based on the Chinese DFH-4 satellite bus, and carries a variety of transponders: 4 C-band; 14 Ku-band; 8 Ka-band; and 2 L-band. It was designed to provide coverage to many parts of Africa, and the Ka-band transponders would also cover Italy.

On 10 November 2008 (0900 GMT), the satellite was reportedly switched off for analysis and to avoid a possible collision with other satellites. According to Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, it was put into "emergency mode operation in order to effect mitigation and repairs" The satellite eventually failed after losing power on 11 November 2008.

On 24 March 2009, the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, NigComSat Ltd. and CGWIC signed a further contract for the in-orbit delivery of the NigComSat-1R satellite. NigComSat-1R was also a DFH-4 satellite, and is expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2011 as a replacement for the failed NigComSat-1.

On 19 December 2011,a new Nigerian communications satellite was lunched into orbit by China in Xichang.The satellite according to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan which was paid for by the insurance policy on NigComSat-1 which de-orbited in 2009, would have a positive impact on national development in various sectors such as communications, internet services, health, agriculture, environmental protection and national security

source: wikipedia updates
pix from online resources and THE National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) Abuja.