Africa is seeking a greater role in the global space economy following the official inauguration of the African Space Agency (AfSA) April 20. The ceremony marked the culmination of a decade-long effort to unify programs across 55 countries.
Headquartered in Egypt, the first African country to operate its own satellite in 1998, AfSA aims to coordinate and empower continental space activities through collaboration and shared resources.
As one of its initial actions, AfSA signed far-reaching cooperation agreements with ESA, the UAE Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos.
AfSA’s international agreements
Addressing African challenges
Over the past three decades, 18 African nations have collectively deployed more than 60 satellites. Yet, Africa’s space sector remains relatively small on the global stage and heavily dependent on foreign support.
African nations collectively allocated just $426 million for space activities in 2025, including contributions to AfSA, according to boutique consulting firm Space in Africa.
In contrast, ESA has an $8.7 billion budget for 2025, in addition to sizable space-related contributions from the European Union, while NASA’s fiscal year 2025 allocation alone reached $25.4 billion.
According to Space in Africa’s figures, the amount African nations allocated for 2025 is also down 7.73% year-on-year following economic pressures, shifting national priorities and some projects moving from construction to an operational phase.
Depreciation of national currencies against the U.S. dollar contributed to the headline decline. Space in Africa senior analyst Mustapha Iderawumi said some countries maintained or slightly increased their space budgets in local currencies.
Nigeria, for example, increased its local currency budget by 47.5% to 94.30 billion Nigerian Naira ($60 million), yet currency depreciation significantly reduced its dollar equivalent compared with previous years.
Managing foreign influence
Although annual space agency budgets across Africa remain modest, countries are increasingly leveraging financing from outside the continent to develop sovereign satellite capabilities.
Angola’s yearly space budget has consistently been under $5 million, Iderawumi noted, but in January its government took out a 225 million euro ($255 million) loan from a French investment bank to fund ANGEO-1, its inaugural Earth observation satellite.
And while European aerospace giant Airbus is building ANGEO-1, a new breed of manufacturer is gaining traction with smaller, cost-effective satellites in geostationary and low Earth orbit to help countries join the space community.
Last year, European microsatellite specialist EnduroSat announced plans to build Botswana’s inaugural satellite — Botsat-1, an Earth observation spacecraft based on a three-unit (3U) standard cubesat structure — in collaboration with a local university.
Botsat-1 is also part of a broader goal to build out a space hub in the country, where engineers from Botswana International University of Science and Technology would ultimately operate the satellite using software from EnduroSat.
Equitable space access
Facing the rapid expansion of Starlink and other major megaconstellations, AfSA arrives amid rising global pressure to ensure equitable access to limited orbital slots and radio frequencies.
South Africa, boasting the largest space budget on the continent, recently revised regulations to facilitate the entry of Starlink and other foreign communications providers, following a high-level diplomatic visit to the United States in May. The high cost of satellite equipment and subscriptions remains a substantial barrier to widespread adoption.
At the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2023, industry executives highlighted growing concerns from developing nations about being locked out from increasingly congested orbital environments.
One outcome of WRC-23 was a decision to formally study equitable procedures for allocating access to critical Q and V spectrum bands.
AfSA is also pursuing initiatives to enhance transparency, competitive bidding and equitable participation for space contractors in Africa.
But perhaps most importantly, advanced satellite technologies are broadly recognized as essential tools for strengthening the agricultural markets that serve as a cornerstone for many African economies.
According to the United Nations, about a fifth of Africa’s population faces food insecurity, with regional disparities prevalent across the continent.
Space also offers solutions for the continent’s considerable digital divide. With nearly two-thirds of Africans lacking broadband access, satellite services can efficiently reach underserved areas where geography and prohibitive ground telecoms infrastructure costs pose significant challenges.
AfSA’s success may be measured by how much it changes there.
This article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of SpaceNews Magazine with the title “Africa’s united space front.”
