Esri, Microsoft, and Space42 Join to Launch “Map Africa Initiative”

Esri, the global provider of location intelligence, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Space42 and Microsoft to support the Map Africa Initiative. The effort is a five-year endeavor to produce the most comprehensive basemap of Africa to date. The initiative will deliver high-resolution, scalable geospatial data across all 54 African countries with the goal to benefit more than 1.4 billion people.

Many of Africa’s official maps are fragmented, outdated, or hard to access, leaving governments and businesses to make major decisions with inaccurate or incomplete data. This has led to challenges in infrastructure development, as well as investment and institutional gaps. This joint initiative between Esri, Space42, and Microsoft was formalized in early July at the 2025 Esri User Conference in San Diego, California. The collaboration aims to increase institutional capacity for African nations by providing locally managed geospatial data and enabling smarter decision-making for governments, businesses, and communities.