Demand is already here.
African governments and operators spend more on satellites, data and services every year, to manage agriculture, climate change and national security. Most of that money is public.
African space economy, 2024 to 2030.
Share of Africa’s satellite market that stays government-backed through 2030.
Low Earth orbit satellites announced worldwide for 2025 to 2031.
Sources: Space in Africa; Goldman Sachs Research.
But the value sits downstream.
Africa uses space. It does not yet make much of what it uses.
Most spending goes on using data
Earth observation, connectivity, navigation. Valuable, but it means the satellites, the tests and the launches come from outside.
No country runs the whole chain
Satellite assembly, test, ground and launch each exist somewhere. No African country has all four.
Going alone is too expensive
An industrial-grade test facility is hard to justify for one country, built one country at a time.
Build it at home, and the value stays.
Qualified jobs
Engineers and technicians in assembly, test and operations. High-value work that is hard to outsource.
Skills that last
Teams that have built, tested and flown hardware, and train the next generation.
A supplier to the world
Global demand for satellites is outgrowing the capacity to build, test and launch them. Africa can supply part of it.
The world can only buy once the standard is met.
Global customers, European ones included, buy from facilities that can prove quality: documented processes, test evidence, recognised standards. Until African capacity meets that bar, it cannot serve them.
That is why supporting African capacity building is in everyone’s interest. It is not charity. It is how new supply comes online.
What holds emerging space nations back.
Expertise
Specialised know-how to build and manage complex space programmes, upstream and midstream.
Finance
A link to international investors, who hesitate because of perceived operational risk.
Where does your country or organisation stand?
Tell us. We start from your priorities.