As a child in Ivory Coast, West Africa, Tidiane Ouattara gathered with friends in his village to look at the stars. The group, who called themselves "the Moon Club," lay on the ground and looked up at the cosmos.
"We believed we could talk to the moon," he told CNN in a video interview. "From that moment on, space was a curiosity for me."
His youthful interest in space never waned, and in 1994 it led him to Canada, where he earned a doctorate in remote sensing and geographic information systems. He had planned to return to Africa when he finished, but was deterred by a civil war in the Ivory Coast and a lack of technology. "There are no computers in the labs here," a mentor told him, "so why are you coming back?"
So he stayed in Canada, where he worked for various government agencies over the years. But he kept thinking about the continent where he grew up. "I felt a little guilty every time I met a young African who was planning to study space," he said. "It really gave me a hard time in my head."
Now, Ouattara is helping Africa get into space. In 2016, he joined the African Union Commission (AUC), where he worked on space strategy. Earlier this year, Ouattara became the first president of the African Space Council, which oversees the recently created African Space Agency (AfSA).
According to consultancy Space in Africa, Africa's space industry could be worth $22.6 billion by 2026, up from $19.5 billion in 2021. The AfSA could accelerate that growth and improve the lives of Africans in the meantime. "It's a huge opportunity for us," Ouattara said.
After years of preparation, AfSA was officially inaugurated in January 2023, signing an agreement to make Cairo, Egypt, its headquarters. The AUC has drawn up a six-year implementation plan for the agency, with a budget of more than $35 million to achieve full operationalization, according to Temidayo Oniosun, managing director of Space in Africa.
"We want to improve our daily lives"
Africa launched its first satellite more than 20 years ago. But more pressing priorities and a lack of resources have limited progress.
A handful of countries - such as Egypt and South Africa - can produce satellite technologies, but they rely on foreign-built rockets and launch pads abroad, Oniosun said.
When Ouattara first returned to Africa, he said he answered questions from officials about why they should care about space when their people had problems such as lack of access to clean water. Ouattara said African leaders are now convinced that investing in the space sector can improve life on Earth.
Africa has about 60 satellites in orbit, which can be used to boost agricultural yields, patrol borders, monitor water quality, and prevent illegal mining and fishing. Better Earth observation data could unlock more than $2 billion in value for Africa, according to a 2021 report by the World Economic Forum.
Satellites can also improve connectivity. Although internet use is increasing, only 36% of the population had access to broadband in 2022, according to the World Bank Group.
Ouattara points to other tangible benefits. A few years ago, a fishing association in Ghana began providing weather forecasts-based on satellite information-to locals using traditional canoes, which can be dangerous in bad conditions. Ouattara said that from 2017 to 2022, there has been only one death from canoeing, compared to about 15 to 18 deaths per year before the system was implemented.
Satellites are being used off the coast of Egypt to track oil spills so environmental agencies can take quick action to limit damage, he said.
Benefits like these may be why interest is growing so quickly. More than 20 countries now have national space programs, and African countries have budgeted more than $400 million for the sector by 2024, according to Space in Africa.
"We are not in space to explore the cosmos. We are not in space to go and find out what is happening on Mars and Jupiter," Ouattara said. "We want to improve our daily lives."
Creating space for the next generation
According to the African Development Bank Group, Africa's population is expected to grow to at least 2.4 billion people by 2050. For Ouattara, that's a "big market to consume space products."
He hopes that Africans can take the reins at every link in the space value chain: from building satellites and ground infrastructure to launching satellites and providing services and creating products based on space information to help Africans live their daily lives.
"We want to do everything, because we have the right to do everything," he said. "But we have to prioritize. We have to go step by step."
There are a number of practical matters that AfSA must address, such as appointing the members of the 10-person council and recruiting a director-general to oversee day-to-day operations. However, Ouattara has no doubts about what the priorities should be to boost Africa's space industry.
A workforce will need to be trained in everything from space diplomacy and law to building small, affordable satellites. "Our biggest challenge will be human capital," he said. "It's not about money."
Next, we need to get to work making the most of the data provided by the satellites.
"It's about better access to high-quality data that can provide valuable insights into different areas," said Space in Africa's Oniosun. "And then applications on that data that can actually address critical issues on the continent."
Experts are hopeful about the impact the new agency will have. While it will not compete with national agencies, it will create a regulatory framework and coordinate space activities across the continent to improve efficiency and make it easier for foreign partners, such as the European Space Agency, to work with Africa, as they can work through the AfSA, rather than approaching countries individually.
It could also help get initiatives off the ground across the continent, such as a constellation of Earth-observing satellites that could provide high-resolution images of all of Africa, Oniosun said.
The AfSA is "a way for everyone to come together," Oniosun added. "A lot of people are very excited about what's going to come out of the agency."
Ouattara tries to convert that excitement into concrete opportunities.
"Young people, they are prepared to be in this space age," Ouattara said. "But we need to create strong curricula and, once they are trained, use them in the right way, to create opportunities to employ them."
Then perhaps the next generation of Africans will no longer have to travel to Canada to make their mark on space.
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