African Space Expo Highlights Local Innovation and Investment Gaps

The Africa Space Expo (ASPEX) has ended in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, after bringing together African start-ups, researchers, project laboratories and investors focused on turning space-related ideas into working services.

The event centred on applications in food security, climate resilience, territorial monitoring, connectivity and maritime security, rather than concentrating mainly on rockets and astronauts. Organisers presented the expo as a platform for moving projects from demonstration to deployment.

Ghana’s developing space sector featured prominently, with officials and private companies describing progress in satellite applications, radio astronomy and technical training. They also pointed to major obstacles, including limited investment, inadequate infrastructure and a shortage of domestic manufacturing capacity.

Ghana expands space applications

Joseph Tandoh, director of the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI), said Ghana’s work is increasingly focused on using space data to address practical national needs.

Through cooperation with South Africa, Ghana converted a redundant 32-metre antenna at Kuntunse into a functioning radio telescope. Ghana became the first among South Africa’s eight African Square Kilometre Array partner countries to complete such a conversion, and the telescope was launched in August 2017.

The GSSTI has also worked with VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research in Belgium, through the GEOMAIZE partnership to demonstrate the use of satellite data in agriculture. The institute has used satellite imagery to track forest loss associated with mining and is working with partners in Nigeria on a digital twin to study coastal erosion at Keta and Agavedzi.

However, Tandoh said crop-yield prediction had been less accurate than expected because many Ghanaian farmers operate small mixed-cropping plots, while available satellite soil-moisture data is too coarse to capture differences between small farms.

He identified a satellite-data processing hub serving government ministries as Ghana’s immediate priority. “Space cuts across all the ministries. We should be able to build and validate our own tools first,” Tandoh said.

Policy and institutional development

Ghana’s National Space Policy was approved by the cabinet in 2022 and launched in 2024. The government approved the establishment of a Ghana Space Agency in 2025, beginning the process of creating a dedicated national institution.

Tandoh said the proposed agency should help Ghana move beyond using imported systems. “We always say that Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute becoming an agency is to position Ghana in a way that we will not only be users of the technology but we will also contribute to designing, developing and building our own tools,” he said.

Japanese cooperation has provided technical training, while the French government has supported work on space legislation. A resulting draft is under review by the attorney general.

At the continental level, the African Space Agency, headquartered in Egypt, is intended to provide a framework for cooperation. During the expo, Ivory Coast signed the Artemis Accords and became the 75th signatory, according to the source report. Angola also signed a letter of intent on space cooperation with the United Arab Emirates.

Private sector seeks capital

Galaxy Aerospace Ghana, founded by Victor Tagborloh in 2020, launched a high-altitude balloon into near space two years later. The company has designed mini-rockets for the GSSTI, trained young people in space robotics and artificial intelligence, and is seeking investors for a ground station and geospatial intelligence platform.

Tagborloh said the company had not secured an investor six years after its founding. Galaxy Aerospace has also secured 33,000 hectares at Apam for a proposed space university, with plans for a ground station subject to the capital required for development.

“We have the team, the knowledge, the research and the technical know-how. We just need funds,” Tagborloh said.

Ghana has a small group of companies working in satellite technology, Earth observation and geospatial services, including Galaxy Aerospace Ghana, Xavier Space Solutions and Ayeji Aerospace. Tagborloh has also argued that Ghana’s location near the equator could reduce the fuel required to launch spacecraft into orbit, though that claim was not independently verified in the source report.

Bright Atsu Sogbey, president of the Africa Development Council and a senior research engineer at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, said Ghana still lacked the state-backed laboratories and manufacturing hubs needed to produce more space components domestically.

“Borrowed technology cannot be sustainable,” Sogbey said, calling for stronger state leadership and partnerships with private companies. He also urged African countries to move from discussion to production, saying future expos should feature satellites assembled on the continent and African launch capability.