Talatona – Speakers at the 3rd edition of the NewSpace Africa (Africa Space Conference 2024) on Thursday called for a commitment of African countries to intensively cooperate with regional and international organizations to consolidate the space industry on the continent.
According to the Head of the Training and Cooperation Department of Morocco's Centre Royal de Télédétection Spatiale, Amal Layachi, more investment in the African space industry is essential along with the need to strengthen the capacity of young people.
The Moroccan expert, who shared her country's experience in terms of technological advances in the areas of geology, agriculture, research project methodologies and training, with the support of international partners, said there is still the need for closer cooperation with other African countries to achieve the much sought-after success in the space area.
Amal Layachi considered it essential for Africa to develop "critical mass" and engineers who can improve industry and infrastructure to enable it to develop and reach higher levels of excellence.
For Doreen Agaba, a technician at the Department of Aeronautics and Space Science, Space Technology in Uganda, the issue of a space agency in her country will be implemented in parallel, without haste.
The Ugandan expert said her country’s government is engaged in capacity building projects and the creation of start-ups for the space project, having reaffirmed that the success of its space agency depends on the training of young people, hard work and a lot of investment.
ZIYAAD SOREEFAN, an aerospace engineer at the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council, said his country's focus is currently on organizing the first Mauritius symposium to seek partnerships with more developed countries.
Fernand Bale, Director of the Centre for Geographic and Digital Information in Côte d'Ivoire, said Africans are committed to special development and that together with partners and ongoing training the objectives set can be achieved.
Participants also addressed the topics of Building a Sovereign African Space Launch Capacity, Optimizing Space Investment in Africa, space-based solutions for climate disaster management: monitoring, modeling and climate adaptation.
Space Applications for Natural Resource Management, Emerging Satellite Technologies in the African NewSpace Ecosystem, will also be discussed.
The 3rd edition of NewSpace Africa is the continent's largest space event organized by Space in Africa, in partnership with the African Union and Angola’s National Space Program Management Office (GGPEN), bringing together decision-makers, government representatives, academics and African space industry technicians in an environment seeking to analyze the role of space in reducing the poverty gap.
The event brings together representatives from 54 countries and from space agencies such as NASA (United States), ESA (Europe), SANSA (South Africa) and KSA (Kenya), as well as Russia and China. Giz/AC/AMP
