As a child in Ivory Coast, West Africa, Tidiane Ouattara would gather with friends in his village to gaze at the stars. The group, who called themselves the “Moon Club,” would lie on the ground and gaze up at the cosmos.
“We believed we could talk to the moon,” he told CNN in a video interview. “From that moment on, space became a subject of curiosity to me.”
His childhood fascination with space never waned, and in 1994 he took himself to Canada to study for a doctorate in remote sensing and geographic information systems. He planned to return to Africa when he finished, but the civil war in Ivory Coast and the lack of technology discouraged him. “There are no computers in the labs here,” a mentor told him, “why are you going back?”
So he stayed in Canada, where he worked for years in various government departments. But he kept thinking about the continent where he grew up. “Every time I met a young African who was planning to work in space, I felt a little guilty,” he said. “It really weighed on my mind.”
Now Ouattara is leading Africa’s push into space. In 2016, he joined the African Union Commission (AUC), where he worked on space strategy. Earlier this year, Ouattara became the first chair of the African Space Council, which oversees the newly formed African Space Agency (AfSA).
According to consultancy Space in Africa, Africa’s space industry could be worth $22.6 billion by 2026, up from $19.5 billion in 2021. AfSA could help accelerate that growth and improve Africans’ lives in the meantime. “This is a huge opportunity for us,” Ouattara said.
After several years of work, AfSA was officially launched in January 2023, signing an agreement to make Cairo, Egypt, its headquarters. According to Temidayo Oniosun, executive director of Space in Africa, the AUC has drawn up a six-year implementation plan for the agency and has budgeted more than $35 million to reach full operation.
“We want to improve our daily lives”
Africa launched its first satellite into orbit more than 20 years ago, but more pressing priorities and a lack of resources have limited progress.
A handful of countries, such as Egypt and South Africa, are capable of producing satellite technologies, but they rely on foreign-made rockets and overseas launch bases, according to Oniosun.
When Ouattara first returned to Africa, he says he was asked why officials should care about space when their populations are facing problems like lack of access to clean water. Ouattara said African leaders are now convinced that investing in the space sector can improve life on land.
Africa has around 60 satellites in orbit that could be used to increase agricultural yields, monitor borders, monitor water quality and prevent illegal mining and fishing. Better data from Earth observation could unlock more than $2 billion in value for Africa, according to a 2021 report from the World Economic Forum.
Satellites could also increase connectivity; according to the World Bank Group, only 36% of the population had broadband access in 2022, even though internet use is growing.
Ouattara points to other tangible benefits. A few years ago, a fishermen’s association in Ghana began providing satellite-based weather forecasts to locals who use traditional canoes, which can be dangerous in poor conditions. From 2017 to 2022, there was only one canoe death per year, compared with about 15 to 18 deaths per year before the system was implemented, Ouattara said.
He said satellites were being used off the coast of Egypt to detect oil spills so environmental agencies could act quickly to limit the damage.
Such benefits may be why interest is growing so quickly. According to Space in Africa, more than 20 countries now have national space programs, and African countries have budgeted more than $400 million for the sector by 2024.
“We are not in space to explore the cosmos. We are not in space to investigate what is happening on Mars and Jupiter,” Ouattara said. “We want to improve our daily lives.”
Creating space for the next generation
According to the African Development Bank Group, Africa’s population will reach at least 2.4 billion by 2050. This is “a huge market for consuming space-derived products,” according to Ouattara.
He hopes that Africans can take the driver’s seat at every stage of the space value chain, from building satellite and ground infrastructure to launching satellites to creating services and products based on space information, helping Africans manage their daily lives.
“We want to do everything because we have the right to do everything,” he said. “But we have to prioritize. We have to go step by step.”
AfSA has some practical issues to sort out, such as naming members for the 10-person council and appointing a director general to oversee day-to-day operations, but Ouattara is in no doubt about what the priorities should be for reviving Africa’s space industry.
A workforce will need to be trained in everything from space diplomacy and law to how to build small, affordable satellites. “Our biggest challenge is going to be human capital,” he said. “It’s not about money.”
From there, work will need to be done to evaluate the data provided by the satellites.
“This is about better access to high-quality data that can provide valuable insights across different domains,” said Space in Africa’s Oniosun. “And then applications on that data that can really solve critical problems on the continent.”
Experts are optimistic about the impact the new agency will have. While it will not compete with national agencies, it will create a regulatory framework and coordinate space activities across the continent, increasing efficiency and making it easier for foreign partners, such as the European Space Agency, to collaborate with Africa because they can work through AfSA rather than approaching countries individually.
It could also help launch continent-wide initiatives, such as a constellation of Earth observation satellites that could provide high-resolution images covering all of Africa, Oniosun said.
AfSA is “a way for everyone to come together,” Oniosun added. “A lot of people are really excited about what the agency is going to bring.”
Ouattara is working to turn this excitement into tangible opportunities.
“Young people are eager to be in this space age,” Ouattara said. “But we need to create strong curricula and, once they are educated, use them properly, creating opportunities to employ them.”
Then perhaps future generations of Africans won’t have to travel halfway around the world to Canada to make their mark in space.
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