NewSpace Africa Conference Impact Report
Space in Africa has released the NewSpace Africa Conference Impact Report, the first comprehensive account of the conference’s five-year contribution to the development of the African space and satellite industry, covering the conference’s evolution from 2022 to 2026 and its growing role in shaping conversations, partnerships, and opportunities.
Over five editions, the conference has grown from 100 delegates from 30 countries in Nairobi in 2022 to nearly 700 delegates from 73 countries across 5 continents in Libreville in 2026, bringing together a total of 2,300 participants, 782 organisations spanning government, commercial, academic, and institutional sectors, and representatives from 98 countries. Approximately 51% of all attendees have been African stakeholders, reflecting the conference’s focus on creating a platform anchored in African priorities while connecting the continent to global partners.
The impact report is structured across six key areas: Policy Impact, Partner Engagement, the NewSpace Ecosystem, International Cooperation, the African Talent Pipeline, and the Future of the NewSpace Africa Conference. It provides insight into how the conference has evolved alongside Africa’s space industry and the opportunities ahead.
The report highlights the conference’s role as a convening platform for African and international space leadership, catalysing institutional milestones that have defined African space governance over the past five years. Some of these major milestones include the inauguration of the African Space Council in Luanda in 2024 and the official inauguration of the African Space Agency headquarters in Cairo in 2025, marking the most consequential moment in African space institutional development in a generation. In the same week, the Africa-EU Space Partnership Programme was formally launched at the conference, backed by a EUR 100 million EU commitment implemented by the African Union Commission, the African Space Agency, and the European Space Agency.
“Five years ago, we created the NewSpace Africa Conference to address a simple need: a platform where the people building, regulating, investing in, and shaping Africa’s space ecosystem could meet in the same room,” said Dr Temidayo Oniosun, Managing Director of Space in Africa and Convener of the NewSpace Africa Conference. “Today, the conference has grown beyond an annual gathering. It has become a space where important conversations happen, partnerships are formed, and decisions that influence the future of Africa’s space economy are shaped.”
Beyond dialogue, the conference has facilitated tangible ecosystem outcomes. The report documents the conference’s growing role as a platform for commercial engagement and business development. Thirty-five organisations have partnered with the conference across two to five consecutive editions, resulting in the formalisation of 16 partnerships and eight programme launches between organisations that met or deepened their relationships at the event. In 2026, the conference attracted a high-level audience, with more than 56% of delegates holding senior positions within their organisations, reinforcing its role as a platform for strategic engagement among decision-makers across government, industry, and investment communities.
The report traces the conference’s journey across Africa’s regions, beginning in East Africa with Nairobi, Kenya, in 2022, moving to West Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, 2023), Southern Africa (Angola, 2024), North Africa (Egypt, 2025), and Central Africa (Gabon, 2026). Each edition has been delivered in partnership with the host country’s national space agency or relevant government institution, strengthening the conference’s role as a platform rooted in the priorities and ambitions of Africa’s space ecosystem.
According to H.E. Dr Tidiane Ouattara, President of the Council of the African Space Agency, “The growth of the NewSpace Africa Conference reflects the growing maturity and ambition of Africa’s space ecosystem. Over the past five years, it has become an important platform where governments, industry leaders, investors, and partners come together to exchange ideas, build partnerships, and address the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of space in Africa. As we continue to advance continental cooperation through the African Space Agency, platforms that strengthen dialogue and collaboration will remain essential to unlocking the full value of space for Africa’s development.”
As the conference prepares for its next edition in Dakar, Senegal, in 2027, Space in Africa continues its commitment to building platforms that connect African ambitions with global expertise, investment, and partnerships.
The full NewSpace Africa Conference Impact Report is available for download here.
About Space in Africa
Space in Africa is the leading analytics and consulting company in the space sector, serving both the institutional and commercial markets with a particular focus on Africa. Our experience builds on a long track of past projects executed for international organisations, national governments, and commercial players, with high stakes in the space business—our practice cuts across all African countries. Space in Africa’s proprietary, research-based business and market analysis predicts critical outcomes in what happens next in the industry and the opportunities available. Its data-driven analysis, free of vested interests and preconceptions, is helping to shape the ecosystem by making accurate information critical for change available. The NewSpace Africa Conference is the primary event in Africa’s space sector, designed to foster further business interactions and cooperation within the African space and satellite industry.
About the African Space Agency
The African Space Agency (AfSA) is the continental space organisation responsible for developing an adequate regional space capability on the continent. It is the focal point of Africa’s collaboration with worldwide partners. The African Union established the agency to coordinate the African Outer Space programme, promote cooperation between the space policies of the AU’s member states, and create a regulatory framework as prescribed in the African Space Policy and Strategy documents. Its strategic objectives are to embed space as one of the critical pillars of African socio-economic development through solid capacity building, translated by adequate infrastructure and training of critical, qualified human capital. The agency is domiciled in the Egyptian Space City, Cairo, Egypt.