Jeff Foust says that the developing world is misspending its space technology funds.

A Counterargument

Other things to consider:
$13 million is 10c per Nigerian.
GDP per capita is $875
( Source : CIA Factbook )

From the same source, talking about the communications infrastructure:

General assessment: an inadequate system, further limited by poor maintenance; major expansion is required and a start has been made

Domestic: intercity traffic is carried by coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, a domestic communications satellite system with 19 earth stations, and a coastal submarine cable; mobile cellular facilities and the Internet are available

International: satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean); coaxial submarine cable SAFE (South African Far East)Note the heavy reliance on satcoms. It's cheaper than laying coax and fibre optic over underdeveloped terrain with inadeqauet support infrastructure. Training Nigerians to operate spacecraft themselves is essential.

Finally, there's one sad fact: Nigeria is a byword for Kleptocracy. Had the $13 million ben spent in-country on, say, making a road, what proprtion do you think would have been siphoned off in graft and corruption? My guess is approximately... 100%.