Space: Côte d'Ivoire becomes the 75th signatory of the Artemis Accords following the Abidjan expo

Côte d'Ivoire has become the 75th country to sign the Artemis Accords on space exploration and development, during the Africa Space Expo (ASPEX) held in late September 2026 in Abidjan, reports Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, Angola signed a letter of intent for space cooperation with the United Arab Emirates.

The Ivorian event illustrates a shift: after years of policy documents, several African states are moving toward concrete programs. The African Space Agency, based in Egypt, is intended to provide the continental framework for this cooperation.

Ghana, from Nkrumah to the radio telescope

Ghana offers the most documented example of this continuity. In 1961, President Kwame Nkrumah launched a nuclear reactor project; the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission was created by Parliament in 1963, before the reactor was abandoned in 1966 following Nkrumah's overthrow. It is from this institution that the current Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI), led by Joseph Tandoh, descends. "Space extends to all ministries," he summarizes to Al Jazeera.

In 2017, the country converted a 32-meter antenna in Kuntunse into a radio telescope, becoming the first of the eight African partners of the South African Square Kilometre Array project to complete this transformation. Its national space policy was approved in 2022 and launched in 2024, and the creation of a Ghanaian space agency was validated in 2025.

Satellites serving fields and coasts

Applications are aimed at daily life: the GEOMAIZE program, conducted with the Belgian institute VITO, uses satellite data to monitor crops; other work maps deforestation linked to illegal gold mining and models coastal erosion in Keta and Agavedzi, with Nigerian partners.

The bottleneck is money

The private sector is emerging—Galaxy Aerospace Ghana, founded in 2020, Xavier Space Solutions, Ayeji Aerospace—but without funding. Its director, Victor Tagborloh, says he has been waiting for investors for six years: "We just need funds." Bright Atsu Sogbey points out that South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria have laboratories and have already manufactured satellites, while Ghana lacks state-supported production hubs. Daniel Aboagye, of African Progressive Research and Innovations, advocates for the introduction of space sciences into African educational systems.

The issue is one of sovereignty: without their own observation capabilities, African states pay a high price for images of their own territories. The signatures in Abidjan open doors; they do not replace national budgets and a continental industry.