Long relegated to military or television uses, satellite technology is now at the heart of Ivorian digital strategy. Received by the Director General of the African Regional Satellite Communication Organization (RASCOM), Timothy Adi Ashong, the Minister of Digital Transition and Technological Innovation, Djibril Ouattara went to “inquire about the working conditions” and the projects carried out by this intergovernmental organization founded in 1992 under the aegis of the African Union, which brings together 45 member states and whose headquarters has been in Abidjan since its inception. creation. For Minister Djibril Ouattara, the convergence of interests is obvious. “RASCOM’s ambitions are aligned with the strategic ambitions of Côte d’Ivoire. We have chosen to integrate satellite technologies as a solution to universal coverage,” he declared at the end of the discussions. 

For his part, the Director General of RASCOM recalled that Côte d'Ivoire already benefits from these orbital capacities, citing the retransmission of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations by Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne, supported by the organization's satellites. He proposed to make RASCOM's technical expertise available to the government to support the studies necessary for the extension of rural coverage, via an Internet solution presented as “100% African”. Concretely, a joint team bringing together the services of the Ministry and the structures in charge of the universal telecommunications service must start work from the first week of August to establish the operational modalities of this cooperation. 

Beyond this protocol visit, the political message is clear: make satellite technologies a lever for development, for Côte d'Ivoire as for the rest of the continent. It now remains to transform these intentions into concrete infrastructures on the ground, in rural areas where digital access remains largely to be built.