With a total of 13 satellites each, South Africa and Egypt have the largest number of satellites in orbit in Africa, while Nigeria also launched a total of seven satellites, according to a report by Statista.
Take a look at the list of African countries with the most satellites in orbit as of August 2024:
country | number of satellites |
South Africa | 13 |
Egypt | 13 |
Nigeria | 7 |
Algeria | 6 |
Morocco | 3 |
Since the statistics were published, Morocco launched two more nanosatellites, bringing the total number of satellites to five.
The report also noted that 12 other African countries had satellites in space, namely Kenya, Angola, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Djibouti, Ghana, Mauritius, Senegal, Tunisia, Sudan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
South Africa was the first country on the continent to build and launch a satellite, called SUNSAT-1, in 1998.