The African Space Council is charged with coordinating the activities of the African Space Agency, guiding continental space policymaking, resource allocation, and regulatory oversights, and managing African space industry stakeholders, including governments and international partners, to facilitate favourable partnerships in space science and technology.
In this exclusive interview, Tidiane Ouattara, chairman of the Council - who has worked on the African Union Commissions African Outer Space Programme and formerly served as an advisor to the president of the Canadian Space Agency - talks African space programmes, its influence on global science, satellites, and the business of space.
You head up the African Space Council, which will be officially inaugurated in Cairo in April 2025. How do you explain the creation of this institution?
I would like to thank the heads of state of the African Union for electing me to head the ASC. We are not behind the times, but we have taken time to organise ourselves as a continent. Today, we are well structured and organised. For the past fifty years, the African space has not been well structured, yet it is part of our daily lives. So we have done everything we can to ensure that space is at the service of Africans.
In concrete terms, what is your roadmap?
