The African Union Heads of State and Government during their Twenty-Sixth Ordinary Session on 31 January 2016 in Addis Ababa adopted the African Space Policy and Strategy as the first of the concrete steps towards realizing an African Outer Space Programme that was identified as one of the flagship programmes of the AU Agenda 2063 (Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.589 (XXVI)).

Earlier in June, there was a discussion on the structural and financial implications of the African Space Agency and from all indications, it seems the African Space Agency is closer than ever. One of the biggest challenges the AU is currently facing is the question of who should host the agency as many countries have shown interest in the past years. This include Ethiopia, Namibia, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa – In April 2018, Ghana’s Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng announced that the West African nation is ready to host the African Space Agency.

With Nigeria and South Africa being the two biggest space fairing nations in Africa (followed by Egypt and Algeria); it seems the battle of who would host the agency is between this two.

South Africa and Nigeria supremacy battle on space investment

AU Officials from Gabon, Tunisia and Uganda have the delegations for a tour of the Nigerian Space Agency facilities to access its suitability to host the much anticipated African Space Agency. This facility tour is critical towards the final outcome of who wins this bid. Space in Africa gathered that Nigeria has offered the African Union $10m grant in supporting its bid to host the agency. The tour which started on Tuesday would end today, Thursday.