NIGNET – The new permanent GNSS network of Nigeria

OSGoF (Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation), which is the National Mapping Agency of Nigeria, initiated in 2008 a project to establish NIGNET (NIGerian GNSS Reference NETwork) This network, formed by state-of-the-art CORS (Continuously Operating Reference Station) GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) equipments, intends to implement the new fiducial geodetic network of Nigeria. NIGNET will serve many different applications at national and continental levels. In fact, the first motivation to implement NIGNET was to contribute for the AFREF (African Reference France) project in line with the recommendation of the United Nation Economic commission of Africa (UNECA) through its Committee on Development, Information Science and Technology (CODIST). At national level, NIGNET will serve primarily as the fiducial network that will define and materialize a new reference frame based on space-geodetic techniques and linked to AFREF. Currently, NIGNET is formed by nine CORS stations covering the entire country. The selection of the locations was carried out considering different theoretical and practical criteria