In much of Africa barriers still exist to the effective use of Earth observation in marine and coastal research and management. To remedy this, the development of data access and processing capacity must go hand in hand with hands-on training in the use of satellite data. The Bilko project has been providing training resources suitable for this for 25 years. In recent years marine scientists from Africa and Europe have been using Bilko to develop lessons based on African examples taken from image data disseminated via GEONETCast in two EC funded projects. The work is part of current efforts to develop MSc level and professional training courses for use in Africa, and shows how the contribution of African experts in the development of new lessons contributes to making these more relevant.