The Africa Space Expo (ASPEX), which closed in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, last week, was not designed as a showcase for rockets and astronauts.
asserted
which → close → rockets
Organisers presented it instead as a marketplace for space applications in food security, climate resilience, territorial monitoring, connectivity and maritime security, bringing start-ups, project labs and investors together to move ideas from demonstration to deployment.
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Organisers → present → deployment
The event also produced several concrete agreements.
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event → produce → agreements
The Ivory Coast signed the Artemis Accords, becoming the 75th signatory of the agreement on space exploration and development, while Angola signed a letter of intent on space cooperation with the United Arab Emirates.
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Angola → sign → Emirates
But beyond the agreements, the expo highlighted a question that is becoming harder to avoid: Can Africa move from using space technology to building more of it itself?
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Africa → highlight → it
Ghana offers a clear illustration of both the progress and the gap.
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Ghana → offer → progress
Ghana’s ambitions in space and nuclear science date back to its early years of independence.
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ambitions → date → independence
In 1961, President Kwame Nkrumah’s government initiated a nuclear reactor project in Accra.
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government → initiate → Accra
Two years later, the government established the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission through an act of Parliament with a mandate covering the peaceful applications of nuclear energy.
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government → establish → energy
The reactor project was shelved after Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, but the institution he helped establish remains the parent body of the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI).
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he → shelve → Institute
Joseph Tandoh, director of the GSSTI, traces Ghana’s more recent space programme to a partnership with South Africa.
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Tandoh → trace → Africa
“Ghana became a partner through South Africa,” he told Al Jazeera.
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he → become → Jazeera
“Through that project, we were able to reconstruct the old satellite antenna at Kuntunse into a radio telescope.
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we → reconstruct → telescope
Through its partnership with South Africa on radio astronomy, Ghana converted a redundant 32-metre (105ft) antenna at Kuntunse into a functioning radio telescope.
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Ghana → convert → telescope
Ghana became the first of South Africa’s eight African Square Kilometre Array partner countries to complete the conversion, and the telescope was launched in August 2017.
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telescope → become → August
Ghana’s National Space Policy was approved by the cabinet in 2022 and launched in 2024.
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Policy → approve → 2024
The government approved the establishment of a Ghana Space Agency in 2025, beginning the process of creating a dedicated national institution for the sector.
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government → approve → sector
The institutional framework is taking shape.
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framework → take → shape
The harder question is how Ghana moves from using space technology to developing and building more of it itself.
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Ghana → move → it
What Ghana is already doing
At the GSSTI, that transition is already under way.
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transition → do → way
Tandoh told Al Jazeera GEOMAIZE, a partnership between the GSSTI and VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research in Belgium, has demonstrated how satellite data can be applied to Ghanaian agriculture.
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data → tell → agriculture
The project monitored crop health and developed algorithms to classify crops.
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project → monitor → crops
Ghana is also expanding its use of Earth observation data and artificial intelligence for crop monitoring and yield prediction.
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Ghana → expand → monitoring
But predicting yields has proved more difficult.
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predicting → predict → yields
Tandoh said the model’s accuracy fell short of expectations, largely because many Ghanaian farmers practise smallholder mixed cropping and satellite soil-moisture data are too coarse to capture differences between small farms.
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data → say → farms
A follow-up project supported by the French embassy and international research partners, is now working to improve the estimates.
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project → support → estimates
The GSSTI has also used satellite data to track forest loss linked to mining and is working with partners in Nigeria on a digital twin to simulate coastal erosion at Keta and Agavedzi.
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GSSTI → use → Keta
Japanese cooperation has provided technical training while the French government supported work on space legislation that produced a draft now being reviewed by the attorney general.
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that → provide → general
“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,” Tandoh said.
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Tandoh → say → tools
The funding wall
Victor Tagborloh founded Galaxy Aerospace Ghana in 2020.
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Tagborloh → found → 2020
Two years later, his team launched a high-altitude balloon into near space, capturing images of Ghana’s geography with clearance from national security and airport authorities.
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team → launch → security
The company has since designed mini-rockets for the GSSTI, trained young people in space robotics and artificial intelligence and pushed for the introduction of Starlink in Ghana in 2024.
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company → design → 2024
But Tagborloh said the company has yet to secure an investor, six years after it was founded.
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it → say → investor
Galaxy’s longer-term plans include a space university on 33,000 hectares (82,000 acres) that it has secured at Apam in Ghana’s Central Region as well as a ground station that would give the country greater capacity to monitor floods, mining activity and coastal erosion.
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that → include → floods
The company is seeking investors for the ground station and a geospatial intelligence platform.
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company → seek → station
Tagborloh said the curriculum is ready and the land is available.
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land → say → ?
What is missing is the capital to turn those plans into infrastructure.
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missing → miss → infrastructure
He also argued that Ghana’s position near the equator could provide an advantage for launching spacecraft, potentially reducing the fuel required to reach orbit.
uncertain
position → argue → orbit
Several other African countries share similar geography.
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countries → share → geography
But Tagborloh’s ambition goes beyond launching rockets.
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ambition → go → rockets
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
