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 nano-satellites, 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.