Posted on: March 16, 2015
The launch of the construction of the headquarters of the JPO (Joint Program Office) EGNOS-Africa Office, has been formalised through a ceremony of laying the first stone. It was attended by Matthias Petschke, Director of satellite navigation programs of the European Union, and Amadou Ousmane Guitteye, Director General of ASECNA and various organisations officials from Aviation community or Government Authorities. The building will also host the headquarters of flight procedures for Africa (AFI FPP) Office.
The future building will come out of the ground in a few months and will be located near the International Airport Léopold Sédar Senghor, close to the ICAO and AFCAC (African Civil Aviation Commission) Offices.
The Joint Office of EGNOS-Africa Program, commonly called JPO (Joint Program Office) EGNOS-Africa is the result of the implementation of the Africa-EU Joint Strategy which calls for the provision of satellite navigation services in the Infrastructure Development.
Just before the laying of the foundation stone, the JPO EGNOS-Africa was officially installed in the temporary premises, granted by ASECNA as part of their contractual obligations in SAFIR. During the ceremony of installation, Amadou Ousmane Guitteye, Director General of ASECNA recalled that: “the main mission of the JPO is to ensure that Africa can have adequate skills and is able to coordinate the implementation of the development and the deployment of GNSS / EGNOS services and applications on the Continent.”
The establishment of the Office of the EGNOS-Africa Joint Programme is an important step towards strengthening cooperation between Africa and the European Union in the field of satellite navigation. This office is a concrete expression of the commitment made by the Heads of State and Government of Africa and the EU at the 4th EU-Africa Summit held in April 2014 in Brussels, to assign sustainable and sufficient resources for the satellite navigation infrastructure deployment based on EGNOS.
For more information, please watch TV5 Monde reportage (in French) on ASECNA and EU-Africa cooperation on EGNOS services.