Interview with Eng. Abdulaziz Alfarraj, CEO of NSG Geospatial Services
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 12, 2025--Satellite Markets and Research Editor-in-Chief Virgil Labrador spoke with Eng. Abdulaziz S. Alfarraj, CEO of NSG Geospatial Services on their company's geospatial capabilities. With over 24 years of experience in leadership roles within the geospatial and technology sectors, Abdulaziz S. Alfarraj has been at the forefront of advancing Saudi Arabia’s capabilities in Geospatial, Earth Observation, and Remote Sensing technologies. Throughout his distinguished career, which spans key positions at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, the Ministry of Interior, and currently NSG Geospatial Services (previously Taqnia ETS), Alfarraj has consistently leveraged the potential of geospatial technologies to drive product localization and spearhead national development in this critical technological field.
Excerpts of the interview follows:
Eng. Abdulaziz Alfarraj
Please give us a brief overview of your capabilities in Geospatial services.
NSG Geospatial Services (previously Taqnia ETS) offers a comprehensive suite of services and products covering the downstream geospatial value chain—from data acquisition and processing, through to advanced analytics and ready-to-use data products, to near-real-time geospatial intelligence. Our homegrown infrastructure, highly specialized local team and AI powered systems enables us to process, produce and analyze vast areas of the region at high capacity and efficiency; producing high-resolution dynamic 2D and 3D datasets, digital maps in a wide range of formats and focuses, and through our platforms—such as NEO Maps and NEO Intel Cell—we deliver curated, multi-sourced spatial layers, near-real-time analytics, and decision support tools designed to serve national security, urban development, and infrastructure resilience.
We operate with a vertically integrated model that ensures full control over data pipelines, platform security, localization, and delivery—enabling us to meet the complex demands of government and enterprise clients.
What makes NSG a good choice for providing Geospatial services?
NSG brings a unique combination of sovereign positioning, technical depth, and operational scalability, making it the preferred geospatial partner for both government, and enterprise sectors in Saudi Arabia.
What sets us apart is our vertically integrated geospatial value chain—we don’t just analyze data, we produce it and deliver curated insights in near-real-time. Through our in-house data production infrastructure, we manage the full lifecycle: from acquiring high-resolution satellite to automated processing, feature extraction, change detection, and thematic mapping using a combination of AI-powered workflows and highly equipped local expertise. This gives us unmatched control over data quality, accuracy, and update frequency—critical for national projects and mission-sensitive applications.
Our ability to localize and contextualize solutions, host and process data on sovereign infrastructure, and deliver them via productized, API-enabled platforms along with bespoke projects ensures we meet the market’s growing demand for secure, real-time, and insight-ready spatial intelligence. We combine this with strong alignment to Vision 2030 and a national mandate to serve as the Kingdom’s geospatial champion.
What are they key vertical markets segments (ie. government, commercial) that you serve and what advantages do you have over other providers in these markets?
NSG serves a broad spectrum of government, security and enterprise sectors, providing both custom geospatial solutions and scalable, productized services through a sovereign, full-stack geospatial platform.
In the government and defense space, we support mission-critical initiatives delivering high resolution dynamic datasets and actionable insights across border security, ISR, urban planning, utilities, and environmental monitoring. These clients rely on our ability to deliver localized, real-time, and secure data, coupled with advanced analytics and sovereign infrastructure compliance, while on the enterprise side, we provide both tailored project support and API-first access to curated industry-relevant spatial data products.
This dual capability allows us to scale across projects of varying complexity, while ensuring alignment with sector-specific needs like asset monitoring, area and points of interest monitoring, site selection, and operational optimization and more.
Our competitive edge lies in our in-house data production and processing capabilities—we generate high-resolution, multi-source datasets and apply AI-powered pipelines for feature extraction, thematic mapping, and automated updates for millions of km2. This enables us to offer clients both precision and flexibility, whether they are building long-term spatial strategies or deploying near-real-time applications.
Another competitive advantage is our ability and expertise in delivering custom added value services across the geospatial value chain; covering data acquisition, processing, analytics, visualization, and specialized support services, presenting where needed turn-key geospatial solutions that answer to unique customer needs.
Additionally, by productizing key services through platforms like NEO Maps and Neo Intel Cell, and by bundling value for high-demand verticals, NSG delivers what many providers cannot: national trust, data ownership, and scalable geospatial intelligence services tailored to both governmental and commercial needs.
Can you cite an example of a Geospatial solution that you provided for a client?
NSG Geospatial Services has delivered more than 120 projects successfully over the last decade (under previous brand TAQNIA ETS), these projects were in a vast range of industries for both government and commercial entities. One of the notable projects was to develop a National Agricultural register for all farming and agricultural activities in Saudi Arabia. For this project, we used high and mid resolution satellite imagery, coupled with data collected from our field survey teams to build comprehensive geodatabases that describe the spatial and descriptive data of more than 450,000 farms and agricultural activities in the Kingdom. All collected and acquired data was carefully processed and verified, and the visualized through a centralized custom built geospatial platform that presented to our client not only the capacity to access, analyze and contextualize the data, but also communicate and aggregate findings and curate evidence based decisions and policies that support farmers and the larger food and agriculture industry in Saudi Arabia. All through in-house capabilities and local talent.
How do you see the market for Geospatial services going forward?
The geospatial services market is entering a period of rapid evolution—driven by digital transformation, technological developments in AI and ML, national strategic programs, and the growing demand for real-time, context-aware spatial intelligence across sectors.
Looking ahead, the market will increasingly favor providers that deliver integrated, interoperable and automated solutions—ones that can bridge fragmented systems, increase production capacity and eliminate the historical silos that have challenged the efficient utility of geospatial data and services in government and enterprise environments. Clients are no longer looking for standalone systems or static datasets; they need dynamic geospatial intelligence that fits seamlessly into their operational workflows, decision support systems, and enterprise architecture.
There is also a growing shift from generic solutions to localized and contextualized geospatial offerings—solutions that reflect the specific realities of a city, an initiative, or a national mission. This is especially true in the Saudi context, where Vision 2030 programs require fit-for-purpose, sovereign geospatial capabilities.
To meet this demand, NSG Geospatial Services is investing in scalable platforms, AI-powered automation, and a production ecosystem that supports both vast data production and near-real-time insight. We see the future not only as a data challenge—but as an integration opportunity: to turn spatial intelligence into a foundational layer of how decisions are made, services are delivered, and national goals are realized.
Anything else you want to add?
At NSG, we see geospatial intelligence not as a niche service, but as a national asset. As demand accelerates—from mega projects to defense and digital governance—the time to build localized, scalable, sovereign, and productized geospatial capabilities is now.
We also see a growing responsibility to help shape the future of geospatial in Saudi Arabia—by investing in talent, supporting local startups, and creating standards for interoperability and data governance. NSG’s role extends beyond delivery—we’re helping build the ecosystem itself.
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