The AU adopted the African Space Policy and Strategy in 2016 and agreed upon the statute underlying AfSA in 2018.
[7] Two African Regional Centres for Space Science and Technology Education were set up in 1998, an English-speaking one in Nigeria and a French-speaking one in Morocco.
[4]: 168 An August 2010 declaration from the Third African Union (AU) Conference of Ministers in charge of Communications and Information Technologies directed the African Union Commission to look into developing such an agency alongside a dedicated space policy.
[8]: 142 A September 2011 statement from the African Leadership Conference on Space Science and Technology for Sustainable Development states cooperation could occur before a pan-African institution was established.
[13] The February 2019 32nd African Union Summit saw a resolution passed to create a headquarters for the agency which would be based in Egypt.
Most of these belonged to Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa.
[12]: 7 A Pan-African University of Space Science and Technology is expected to be set up in South Africa and support AfSA, although this initiative has stalled.
[12]: 4 [18] The agency was officially founded to promote policy and strategy cooperation and coordination within the African Union member states.
It is intended to have a coordination role, rather than being directly involved with satellite production and space launches.