As the second-largest continent by land area in the world, with 54 countries and 1.3 billion people, Africa is culturally, politically and geographically diverse. This provides some constraints but also enormous opportunity. In the context of the space economy, within the range of applications each part of the space value chain has a centre of excellence across the continent. So says RIIS CEO, Davis Cook, during an interviewed on the popular space-economy focused t-minus daily podcast which is hosted by Maria Varmazis.
Davis says, “Consider that there are high-end capabilities around image processing and the downstream applications in Nigeria and Egypt. Data capabilities in terms of programming, for example, are emerging in countries such as Kenya, and South Africa has a small but vibrant upstream subsystem manufacturing sector. Even though it is still relatively small, the total African space economy is valued at around $25 billion.”
Listen to the podcast. Davis Cooks’ interview occurs at timestamp 12:08.
