Strengthening Space Technology-Industrial Strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander casts its shadow across the Moon’s surface on March 2 2025, with Earth visible on the horizon. © Firefly Aerospace

A recently launched National Space Strategy Toolkit, developed by the World Economic Forum in partnership with PwC, provides governments with a structured framework to design and implement national space strategies.

For Sub-Saharan African nations—many of which are drafting new policies, updating earlier frameworks, or reviewing implementation progress—this Toolkit can offer timely guidance. By consolidating best practices from global space actors, it can help countries navigate issues of governance, financing, and public-private collaboration, ensuring that space ambitions translate into tangible societal and economic benefits.

In an era where space is tied to sovereignty, communications, climate monitoring, security, and economic development, the Toolkit offers one useful starting point for emerging, space ambitious countries hoping to join - or lead - in the 'new space race'.

Developed under the WEF Future of Space Technology Network, the Toolkit is designed as a practical framework for aligning national goals with the rapidly evolving global space sector. A key feature of this evolution is that space innovation is increasingly powered by private sector and entrepreneurial activity, underpinning new forms of public-private collaboration:

"With the development of the space ecosystem, the role for governments and space agencies has evolved with it. Historically, space agencies have focused on large-scale scientific missions and space exploration. However, developing a space programme no longer requires developing a satellite or rocket from scratch. Space agencies are adopting innovative approaches by strengthening international collaboration and fostering commercial space activities through public-private partnerships."

The Toolkit draws on a wide reference group of space actors and experts, spanning public and private sectors across both developed and developing nations, demonstrating a harmonised and emergent view of international best practice in 'new space policy'. The reference group includes 25 national space agencies or space-focused government offices, ~10 international organisations, ~10 research institutions, and ~20 private sector and industry actors (including Amazon and Axiom Space).

From Africa, contributors include the African Union Commission, the Kenya Space Agency, the Egyptian Space Agency, the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council, and Nigeria’s national operator NIGCOMSAT.

The toolkit covers the essentials of building a coherent national space strategy:

• Assessment: Understanding a country’s existing space capabilities and institutional landscape.

• Enablers: Identifying the legal, financial, and policy mechanisms needed to support growth.

• Implementation: Creating pathways to build capacity, attract investment, and foster international cooperation.

• Adaptation: Ensuring strategies evolve with technological change and shifting priorities.

Explore the National Space Strategy Toolkit and review their Use Case Library (© 2025 World Economic Forum).