\n Zimbabwe is inviting investors to participate in its latest satellite project aimed at boosting telecommunications connectivity, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced.\n <\/p>\n
\n The southern African nation launched its first mini-satellite in November 2022, followed by a second in 2024. The upcoming project is expected to cost nearly $200 million, Bloomberg reported.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are looking for partners who can support us,\u201d he added. \u201cOnce completed, our connectivity will improve significantly.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Later this year, Zimbabwe plans to launch its third earth observation satellite, ZimSat-3, just months after sending ZimSat-2 into orbit.\n <\/p>\n
\n The country\u2019s first satellite, ZimSat-1, is currently used for monitoring drought conditions, mapping mining activities, and other data-driven operations from the Mazowe Ground Station.\n <\/p>\n
\n The government sees these space initiatives as key to advancing national modernisation and manufacturing goals.\n <\/p>\n
Africa\u2019s Growing Space Presence<\/p>\n
\n African nations are increasingly turning to satellites for strategic purposes. Across the continent, satellites play critical roles in agriculture, climate monitoring, communications, and disaster response.\n <\/p>\n
\n Annual African government spending on space has averaged around $500 million in recent years. Leading the way are Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Algeria, and Angola, each sustaining investments in a mix of Earth observation, communication, and scientific satellites, often in partnership with international collaborators.\n <\/p>\n
\n Egypt currently operates 14 satellites, South Africa has 12, and Nigeria 7, reflecting the growing importance of space infrastructure across the continent.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe is inviting investors to participate in its latest satellite project aimed at boosting telecommunications connectivity, Finance Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-473458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}