“Africa must no longer see space as a frontier to contemplate, but as a sovereign data infrastructure directly serving our lands, our producers and our economic autonomy. When satellite data meets digital trust, value finally returns to where it is born: into the hands of communities.”
From 24 to 26 September 2026, the Parc des Expositions in Abidjan was the stage for a historic turning point for the continent’s technology ecosystem: the joint holding of the Africa Space Expo (ASPEX 2026) and the AIGF Radiocommunications Forum, under the aegis of the African Union, the African Space Agency (AfSA) and the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire.
Bringing together sector ministers, heads of continental and international space agencies, spectrum regulators and tech pioneers, the event carried an unequivocal ambition: “African space in action: structure, decide, deploy for the continent’s sustainable socio-economic development.”
It was at the heart of this leading decision-making and scientific arena that Armand Gaetan NGUETI, Founder and Global CEO of the American technology company UBTS International Corp. (Delaware C Corp), took an active part in the proceedings and high-level exchanges.
This participation is no institutional coincidence. It sits at the very core of UBTS’s mission: to transform people’s lives through the power of technology and to give power back to local communities (Empower Communities).
1. Côte d’Ivoire as the epicentre: the strategic alignment of an operational hub
ASPEX 2026 in Abidjan coincides with a decisive milestone for the Group: the operational roll-out of UBTS Côte d’Ivoire SAS, UBTS’s bridgehead and francophone hub for West Africa, which carries the pioneering Ivoire Agritech Digital Passport (IA-DP) project.
As Africa steps up the structuring of its orbital capabilities — embodied by the joint initiatives of the Côte d’Ivoire Space Agency (ASCI), led by Dr Tidiane Ouattara, and AfSA — UBTS brings the indispensable ground link: how to turn raw data from space into value that can be monetised, audited and shared fairly across productive value chains.
For Armand Gaetan NGUETI, being in Abidjan alongside space and radiocommunications decision-makers confirms the conviction that no data ecosystem can thrive in a silo:
- Satellites provide macroscopic observation (climate, water stress, biomass mapping, and forest cover against deforestation in line with EUDR requirements);
- UBTS’s technology protocols turn these flows into tamper-proof attestations and digital passports for each agricultural lot;
- Ivorian and African producers reach the global market with irrefutable scientific proof of the quality of their harvest.
2. The Leapfrog Imperative: merging space, DLT and agritech
At UBTS, the core thesis is to skip intermediate technological stages (The Leapfrog Imperative). Africa does not need to reproduce the centralised, fragmented models of the last century. It has a unique opportunity to build, directly, an architecture that is natively distributed, sovereign and connected to space.
At ASPEX 2026, the debates largely converged on universal satellite connectivity (LEO, direct-to-device constellations, smart radio-frequency management). As head of UBTS, and as a leading figure in digital trust and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) on the continent, Armand Gaetan NGUETI championed a fundamental triptych:
- Earth observation for scientific measurement: to add value to African produce (cocoa, coffee, cashew, food crops), UBTS applies the principle of pricing based on science (Priced on Science). Multispectral satellite imagery and radar data make it possible to certify the environmental history, carbon footprint and soil integrity of every plot.
- Data integrity and sovereignty: data captured from space only has impact if its authenticity remains inviolable all the way to the final transaction. The UAA-DP / IA-DP protocol ensures that the history of an agricultural lot, correlated with satellite remote sensing, can be neither altered nor improperly captured by speculative intermediaries.
- Redistributing value to producers: through the interoperability of space data and digital markets via the trading subsidiary UBTS Trading Company, the international premium buyer pays a premium above the floor price (baseline). This premium is shared directly with the producer. Satellite science thus becomes a direct driver of poverty reduction.
3. Executive meetings and multilateral vision: from the exhibition centre to the global stage
On the sidelines of the plenary sessions on the Abidjan Declaration and the regulation of the electromagnetic spectrum, high-level business sessions (Executive Business Meetings) enabled the CEO of UBTS to meet heads of agencies, global industrial partners and institutional representatives.
The priorities Armand Gaetan NGUETI raised in these strategic exchanges include:
- Building synergies between ASCI / AfSA data and UBTS traceability algorithms, to give Côte d’Ivoire and partner countries a smart, resilient agricultural land register;
- Strengthening local skills through UBTS Academy, with modules in geomatics, geospatial data analysis and blockchain architecture to train young Ivorians for the jobs of the new space economy;
- Structuring secured financing through the Agritech Trust Fund, where space-based and environmental compliance data serve as collateral for seasonal crop loans to agricultural cooperatives under the WAMU banking framework.
4. A continuing commitment to African prosperity
As ASPEX 2026 closes with the historic signing of continental commitments for a structured space sector oriented towards sustainable development, UBTS International Corp. reaffirms its roadmap: turning major institutional resolutions into software solutions, telecommunications infrastructure and tangible well-being for rural populations.
From Washington to Abidjan, from the upper atmosphere to the fertile lands of our producing regions, the approach led by Armand Gaetan NGUETI remains constant:
“We do not build technology for the fascination of code or orbital mechanics. We deploy infrastructure to give every African producer the pride and the financial return their labour deserves. Space is now our ally on the ground.”
History is being written now. UBTS International Corp. keeps leading the way.
Learn more
- Discover our initiatives and our vision of the technological leapfrog: ubts.tech
- Follow the roll-out of the IA-DP programme in Côte d’Ivoire: UBTS Côte d’Ivoire SAS
- Institutional relations and partnerships: engage@ubts.tech