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Temidayo Oniosun, an Alumnus of FUTA who has become a dominant player in the push to make Africa benefit from Space Technology and industry

Temidayo Oniosun, an Alumnus of FUTA who has become a dominant player in the push to make Africa benefit from Space Technology and industry, was recently featured in FORBES AFRICA , one of the Continent’s most influential magazines. We reproduce excepts from the Feature Story below
 
Using Space Technology to Resolve Africa’s Problems
 
Thousands of kilometers away from South Africa, 24-year-old Oniosun Temidayo has made it his life’s mission to make Africa the next frontier of the space industry.
Temidayo grew up in a family of five children in Oyo State in the southwest of Nigeria, but always aspired to go to space. There were no opportunities to study aerospace engineering or astronomy so he studied meteorology instead, but space is his first love, and he has been involved in the industry for the last six years.
“The good thing about investing in the space industry is that it helps you solve major societal problems. Space technologies can go along way in actually helping us solve issues like agriculture or security,” he tells FORBES AFRICA.
When he was 18, he established a space club at his university with over 200 members. He was also involved in the university’s center for space research.
In 2017, he was part of the group that created Nigeria’s first nanosatellite in conjunction with the Japanese Birds-1 program, a collaborative effort between the Federal University of Technology, Akure(FUTA), and the National Space Research and Development Agency.
It involved five countries, namely Bangladesh, Japan, Mongolia, Ghana and Nigeria. Temidayo worked on the grand station development.
The project’s aim was to equip the future generation of students to create their own satellites.
Post his studies, Temidayo joined the Space Generation Advisory Council, a global organization aiming to bring the views of young space professionals to the United Nations.
There, he became the African regional coordinator driving the development of space and promoting STEM.
In 2017, they hosted an African region space generation workshop, a gathering of young space professionals in Africa with 15 countries in attendance.
Early 2018, the young entrepreneur founded a company called Space in Africa, a platform that covers the business, technology, discoveries, events and political news around the African space and satellite industry.
His goal was to put out African-related information about the industry that he found lacking.
“In Africa, we believe it’s actually time to get involved in the space industry. But we realized this is not going to happen if there is no adequate information on the industry,” he says.
He was the only African listed under the 24 Under 24 Leaders and Innovators in STEAM and Space Awards given away by The Mars Generation (anon-profit with boards of leaders from the space industry) early 2018. The list awards young people driving STEM and space globally.
 
In August, he also made it to the 35 Under 35 in the space industry ranking by the International Institute of Space Commerce (established at the Isle of Man). He was one of two Africans on the list.
Despite the lack of resources Nigeria has in space technology, Temidayo says space technology can help in a much bigger way.
“I remember when the Chibok girls went missing in Nigeria,that’s actually a scenario where space technologies could have been capitalized on. At some point, we were using satellite technologies to track them,” he says.
Temidayo emphasizes on technology.
“The argument shouldn’t be ‘should we invest in space’? Yes,we should invest in space. At the same time, we should have policies that enable us to actually make use of these technologies to solve our problems.”
Africa’s outer space strategy
Despite the many challenges Africa faces, experts say it should not shy away from the space race and many countries on the continent plan to make their name in the sector.
There are currently 13 space agencies listed in Africa and 28 satellites have been launched by African countries (owned by Egypt, Algeria,Angola, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya).
According to the Business and Market Analysis of the African Space Industry done by Space in Africa, over $3 billion has been spent on space projects in Africa since the launch of NILESAT 101 by Egypt in 1998.
“Over 40% of the satellites launched in Africa were launched over the last two years,” Temidayo says.
“This means that in the past two years, African countries have been investing more in space technologies than they were 10 years back.”
Temidayo expects the trend to continue.
“By the end of this year [2018], four more satellites will be launched by African countries.”
CULLED from Africa Forbes Magazine’s Feature Story “ Africa Takes to the Stratosphere and Beyond” by Karen Mwendera