Introduction

 

Marconi won a contract in the mid 50s to provide a national communications network for Nigeria primarily for telephone and data traffic. The contract covered the supply, installation and on-going maintenance and became the largest single VHF communications network in the world (ref: A History of The Marconi Company by W.J. Baker).

 

To address the on-going maintenance aspects Marconi set up a separate company called the Nigerian Maintenance Service (NMS) initially staffed by expatriates and based in Lagos.

 

In support of this contract Marconi also had to provide an education facility so that local Nigerians could be trained to take over from a predominantly expatriate workforce. This was set up in the Post & Telegraph Training Centre at Oshodi, about 10 miles from Lagos.

 

 

 

 

 

General system documentation

 

 

An article in the Marconi Point-to-Point magazine describes the various activities in Nigeria in the 50/60s.

 

 

Survey information

 

This document and this document by Eric Gall provides some insight into the original  survey carried out in Nigeria.  This was followed by another article in 1954 by John Palmer here and yet another article here by B Horner in 1956.  In 1958 this was followed by other articles Part I and Part I by Gerry Seear and WD Baldwin.

 

 

The opening

 

The formal opening of the Nigerian scheme took place in 1958.