Africa is arguably the fastest-growing continent in the world, yet its infrastructure development, according to a World Bank report, is one of the slowest.

With road, rail and air networks unable to cope with the growing commerce and need for movement of goods between countries and cities, could the solution lie in an unlikely source, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) otherwise, known as drones?

The New Times put this question to various experts attending the Africa Drone Forum underway in Kigali.

No doubt, drones act as a tool to alleviate issues that arise out of lack of access to infrastructure, said Isabelle Umugwaneza, the Deputy Managing Director at Rwanda Airports Company.

"Drones do not replace critical infrastructure such as roads or hospitals, rather they act as a tool to alleviate issues that arise out of lack of access to these infrastructures.

Drone technologies can act as a bridge for remote communities, linking them to essential goods, supplies and potential markets,” she said. In Rwanda, drones are already being used to deliver essential blood at hospitals in the country.

Emile Nguza Arao, the Executive Director of Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (CASSOA) believes that drone solutions could be an alternative to the continent’s infrastructural problems but they also pose a risk to the current air traffic control.

"Drones are amazing. The sky has given unlimited opportunities. Being a businessman, I see all the good that comes out with drones due to lack of adequate infrastructure like roads, hospitals among others,” he said.

But it also comes with some challenges, Nguza argued.

"There are only two approved forms of flying; instrument flight rules that allow you to fly in the clouds, and the visual flight rules where you have to see.

A drone on display at South Korea’s Airon stand during an exhibition taking place on the sidelines of the Africa Drone Forum at Kigali Convention Centre on February 5. / Photo: Emmanuel Kwizera

Now, for visual flight rules (VFR), when you are flying in an aircraft you have to see, most people use reference points outside.

You have to stay essentially clear of clouds because once you go into the clouds you can’t see.

That is visual flight rule. So if the rules are not adequate enough, you will have collisions among aircraft which will be detrimental to aerospace,” he explained.

He also pointed out that between 2016 and 2036, the number of manned aircraft will double the current ones

"Adding drones to the current manned aircraft with in the same aerospace, I suspect that the accident rate will shoot up if nothing is done differently to control and establish stringent rules,” he reiterated.

For Leslie Cary, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) chief of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), drones can both compensate for lack of certain infrastructure.

"Whether you have infrastructure or not drones provide a whole new method of accomplishing things. They provide way beyond opportunities other than compensate for shortages of infrastructure,” Carey noted.

Just as mobile phones dispensed with landlines, cargo drones can transcend geographical barriers such as mountains, lakes and unnavigable rivers without the need for large scale physical infrastructure, the RPAS officer contended.

According to Jean-Bosco Rutayisire Muziga, an aviation expert, just a third of Africans live within two kilometres of an all-season road, there are no continental motorways or enough bridges that can reach people living in far-flung areas of the continent.

"It would require unprecedented levels of investment in roads and railways to catch up with the exponential growth in Africa’s population which is set to double to 2.2 billion by 2050,” said Rutayisire, who currently works as the quality and safety advisor to Charis Unmanned Aerial Solutions, a local firm offering drone services.

An infrastructural leap using drone technology and clean energy systems is essential to surmount the challenge of the future, Rutayisire added.

The Africa Drone Forum which ends Friday has brought together over 800 stakeholders from 44 countries.