Hayes Group International’s Post

#SpaceDiplomacy in Africa Just returning from a few weeks in Africa, primarily #angola and this beautiful country is open for business with space diplomacy and expertise one of their potential exports. Hayes Group International has been working with the amazing team at the #Angolan Space Agency GGPEN and this trip I had the opportunity to see their hard work and amazing success. The leadership of Zolana Joao, D.Eng with his amazing team to include Vangiliya Pereira Oswaldo De Jesus, M.Sc and Luciano Lupedia operationlizing his space strategy has resulted in significant gains not only for Angola but for all of Africa. While in South Africa I had the opportunity to meet with Export-Import Bank of the United States Prosper Africa USAID to speak of how #space based technology can be used within multi sectors to include the mining industry but was also able to carry the narrative on the importance of how an equitoral #spaceport makes sense and the vision for the first #AfricanAstronaut. When it comes to #SpaceDiplomacy and #Africa a couple of notes: 🚀 You have to turn up You cannot talk about Africa and #space unless you turn up and see what is going on. 🚀Not all African countries are the same Meaning each country on the continent is at different stages of their growth so a one size fits all approach doesn’t work. 🚀Space enabled/adjacent solutions Leading with a Space discussion can be difficult so have a narrative that makes sense for what you are trying to solve for. Is it comms, navigation and positioning, EO/data or infrastructure or a combination of all? Is it research? All are space related and have applications to solve many of Africa’s challenges but the response will be different for each country. Lead with the challenge you are solving for versus leading with #space 🚀Make an economic case for Space There are only finite resources so making a case for #space where space contributes and is necessary for economic growth can help #african space agency….combining mining and space, agriculture and space…there are many more applications 🚀African countries have choice Strategic competition exists and there can be a #placeinspace for all. That said African countries have choices so come ready to compete with your best solutions So Turn Up… Space in Africa event in #luanda is April 2nd. Meshack Kinyua Ryan McKinney Axiom Space U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) Kelli Kedis Ogborn BG Rose Lopez Keravuori #spacebasedtechnology #other50% #womeninspace #geospatialdata #datafusion #spaceforall #spaceadjacent

When I first went to Africa there was a war raging in Angola and the US was supporting a white South African government still enforcing apartheid. Look below and see how Africa has changed. The beauty, the entrepreneurial spirit and the talent were always there but the US until recently has being cautious and naive in their approach to the continent. My first comment to anyone that is looking to do business in Africa is to read two books from the country you are planning to visit. One a history book and another that tells their stories. It will give context and understanding of the people you want to do business with and where they have come from. In 2022, Angola rejected a Chinese bid to re-rehabilitate and operate freight service along the Lobito Corridor line. Instead it granted a 30-year concession to a U.S.-backed European consortium that promises to carry millions of tons of green-energy minerals such as copper, manganese and cobalt from Congo to Angola’s Atlantic coast. The U.S. government is planning to lend $250 million and its prestige to make sure the $1.7 billion Lobito Corridor project succeeds. The Biden administration has made improved commercial ties with Africa a foreign-policy priority. The railway win, along with several other recent Western business coups, shows the U.S. and its allies can hold their own in the elbowing for economic position and political sway in Africa, according to American officials. The U.S. Export-Import Bank is lending Angola $900 million to buy American equipment for solar-energy projects expected to supply power to a half-million homes. In September, the bank approved a $363 million loan guarantee to help New Jersey-based Acrow Corp. of America sell steel bridges to the Angolan government. Last month, Texas-based railway consortium All-American Rail Group signed a memorandum of understanding with the Angolan government to explore upgrades to a parallel train route to Congo running across northern Angola. The Angolan Transport Ministry put the potential investment linked to the project, which would be more focused on agricultural trade, at $4.5 billion." Thank you Adam Frost for the work you and your team do because it shows that we do not need to be a slave to history and the restrictive narrative that surrounds Africa. #africa is open for business. #inafricawerise 🚀 #supplychain #logistics #africa #africaspaceport #rareearth #criticalminerals #space #africanbusiness #exim BG Rose Lopez Keravuori Adam Smith Brian Hibbeln Zolana Joao, D.Eng Meshack Kinyua Ryan McKinney Matthew Tirman Daphne Titus