Daka Space Technologies Limited – Malawi’s first technology startup firm – has launched the Malawi Space Stars Campaign to raise awareness about space technology and career opportunities in the field.
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The campaign is being financially supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom (UK) and is targeting secondary school students, particularly those taking science subjects.
Speaking at Likuni Girls Secondary School in Lilongwe on Friday, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Daka Space Technologies Limited, Chisomo Daka, said there are so many hidden potentials in space science and space technology.
Daka cited disaster management as one of the areas that can benefit from space technology.
“Space technology can also help us address things like national security, precision agriculture and weather monitoring,” he said.
Daka disclosed that he founded the firm from inspiration from the time he was doing his Masters of Science and Physics in India where he led a team to deploy a payload in space.
“We did come up with the innovation that is being improved to the market within the five centimeter range, so from primary experience I had in India then they come to Malawi and those use cases for space that can be used for different developing agendas for the country. And this also speaks with the continental agenda, the agenda 2063 for Africa, where we saw that in 2020 the African Union for the first time established this agency down to allow even working up through the leadership,” he said.
Daka said time had come for Malawi to establish a space agency.
He commended President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera for taking steps by setting up a taskforce that is looking into it.
“These innovations are important you see, often other times we talk about the country’s really developed with initial frame. Do we know that initiatives, awareness are very critical when you want a country to advance in science and technology? So these youngsters in schools understand what is what is it that the anticipated to study in space science, and what is it that they need to do in order to take a career pathway that will lead them to become a professional in his field? So this is very important, because we’re inspiring the next generation of leaders through this journey,” he said.
Deputy head teacher at Likuni Girls Secondary School, Jean Kingstone Chimbiya, hailed the campaign, saying it will help in orienting and encouraging students to pursue science subjects.
Chimbiya added that the campaign will also help the students to choose the right courses after their secondary education.
