Rural life in Africa

In this article I'm going to reveal the rural life of Africans,    their level of internet literacy, technology advancement, access to information, levels of agricultural production and access to energy. Later on I will be explaining opportunities to start ups and well established businesses looking to invest in rural life, and lastly difficulties they might face in trying to invest in rural life.

1. Internet illiteracy in rural areas of Africa. 

Citing IGI Global, Internet literacy is defined by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2013c) as the ability necessary to access the Internet while incorporating the following three points: (1) the ability to address illegal and harmful contents on the Internet appropriately, (2) the ability to communicate on the Internet appropriately, and (3) the ability to protect their privacy and perform security measures.

Basing my survey on this definition I have realised that the majority of rural people do have internet illiteracy due to various reasons. In the other parts of the continent, taking Zimbabwe for instance, some people in rural areas don't have any reason to visit the internet, some they don't have devices to log on to the internet, some doesn't even know that the internet exist and they don't know why they could even vist that internet. 

The large population with devices to access the internet reveals that they only know WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube. When it comes to Google, only few students are capable of screening what they find on the internet to be legitimate or not.

This is the current state of rural people  in relation to the internet according to our own researches carried via social relations across the continent as well as offline observations and interviews.

2. Levels of technology in rural areas of Africa. 

In most areas, people depends on hard labour for production of their utilities, they depend on hand tools such as hoes, axes, machetes and  knives. Every few families in remote locations have access to TV channels, electricity and gas, people depends on fire wood for cooking. When it comes to local transportation of utilities, most people depends on animal and animal drawn carts.

3. Access to information. 

Radio as a media of information is still at top, very few families have capabilities to access television channels, social media channels, newspapers and magazines. There are broken links of information between villages. A large population of people depends on small cellophones not touch screens or Smart phones, they depend on calls and text messages. 

There are very few journalist capturing lives in rural areas of Africa to bring it to the public. There are poor road networks, dust roads in general.

4. Levels of Agriculture productions.

My own case Study reveals that most rural farmers practice subsistence farming to feed their families, the variance of commercial farming to subsistence farming shows that very few people in rural areas of Africa practice farming as a business. 

People depends on animal and physical labour than tractor. There are very few irrigation systems and projects in rural areas of Africa if we are to compare with commercial sites. 

For instance in Ogun State Nigeria, main livelihood for rural people in the area is subsistence farming, but more than half of the food crop farmers also engaged in trading. This suggests that the majority of these households are experiencing constraints in their farming activities and needed additional income sources.

5. Access to energy facilities. 

For interviews and observations in data  collection we have revealed that, most people in rural areas of Africa depends on solar particulars for energy, especially for mobile device and small electrical gudgets. Most families depends on  firewood for cooking and heating. For lighting they depend on small solar kits. For engines they depend on fuel, diseal and petrol. 

So this is the current state of rural life in Africa, if you are a futuristic planner,  you can easily determine opportunities to invest in rural life of Africa,  here is the list of opportunities. 

1. Agriculture infrastructure. 

From above findings, you can easily identify that investing in infrastructure of rural life might be entering untapped market space. 

2. Internet education. 

If one might craft this idea into something meaningful, a lot of people might find reasons to enrol for the course. 

3. Energy and power  facilities. 

There is high demand of such innovations to be tried into these communities, especially biogas, solar systems and any other non elasticial energy. 

4. Access to information. 

If one thought of creating any media company covering rural life stories, that business might be profitable.

What's your views about investing in rural life?