Rwanda is in talks with a host of nations to help develop its space capabilities, in possible deals that will potentially add impetus to the country’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ambitions.The country’s space ambitions have attracted interest from countries such as Japan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, Paula Ingabire, the Minister of ICT and Innovations, told The New Times.The proposed mid to long-term partnerships with these countries, she said, range from the use of geospatial data, to the design, and manufacturing of satellites.Rwanda and Israel signed an agreement in 2020, effectively laying the grounds for pursuing this cooperation. And in 2019, Rwanda and Japan teamed up to build the first cube satellite (RwaSat-1) which was launched from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre and deployed to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) from International Space Station.RwaSat-1 has antennas alongside two multi-spectral cameras on-board which communicate with deployed ground sensors. The satellite helps the government to monitor water resources, natural disasters, agriculture and meteorology.
