Africa: Drones One Piece of a Much Bigger Technology Revolution

Ground-breaking drone programs abound in Africa, with applications including medical delivery, precision agriculture, flood management, and insect control, reports DroneLife. At the African Drone Forum, it is clear that the goals of participating countries and companies are far greater than individual humanitarian projects, however valuable. African nations, including Drone Forum host Rwanda, are focused on the drone industry as part of a plan to use the tech revolution to overcome some of the area’s infrastructure challenges and supercharge local economies.

In the same way that regions without robust land line infrastructure were among the first and the fastest to adopt mobile phone technology, remote areas without a robust road infrastructure may benefit most from e-commerce and technologies like drone delivery. Pointing out that adoption rates of mobile phones in some African countries are more than 90%, Franz Drees-Gross, the Regional Director of the World Bank, outlined the potential for technology and e-commerce. “Drones can accelerate Africa’s digital economy,” said Drees-Gross. “Many communities are digitally online, if geographically remote.”

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If farmers, mechanics, medical facilities, and markets in remote areas are able to order supplies online by mobile phone and have them delivered by drone, rather than having to transport goods over ground, production in many areas will see an exponential boost. If customers and suppliers are able to make and receive payments via mobile technology, that boost is amplified further – with traditional banking challenging in remote areas, digital currency becomes more valuable – and feasible.

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