One big deal in Africa is logistics. The railways of the colonized era were designed from quickly moving raw materials to ports. And the new Chinese-built roads are no different.
The end result is that trucking food between cities and villages not that far away from each other is crazy slow, dangerous, and profitable. Not much differently from trans-Pacific trade some 100-150 years ago.
If somebody would come up with a transport solution that wouldn't require massive infrastructure investments (for which there is no money), and which would be safer and faster than current trucks, Africa could start changing very quickly. And there would probably be a decent profit in that.
Where to start? Could locally-produced, solar-powered small airships do the thing?
There's some interesting innovations in infrastructure-less transport:
1. low cost UAV's - have been used in africa to transport blood samples and meds between hospitals and cities. the MATTERNET is a project that on scaling a UAV transport network in africa, using UAV's , currently probably for small weights , but it would probably increase in the future.
But the UAV industry is improving in rapid pace, because of military innovations, so it's a good place to be.
There's also a lot of open source innovation there, radically reducing the costs.
2. There's some work being done on airships(and plane airship combo) for the army, and airships for commercial transport for areas with no infrastructure(oil fields, etc.). might also fit africa.
3. There's a company working on a low cost jeep , fit to the the African muddy roads. It's can also cheaply supported by current african repair networks.
Then resources can be raided in remote areas without doing anything for the people who live there. With efficient enough machinery you won't even need to train local people to take part in the operation from start to finish.
Having a major logistics route run through an area does not make that area prosperous. It does, however, make the owner of said trade route prosperous. What your arguing is an extension of the status quo for Africa and many other areas of the world with extensive natural wealth. Nothing gets locally produced if someone elsewhere can produce it cheaper in a free market.
The end result is that trucking food between cities and villages not that far away from each other is crazy slow, dangerous, and profitable. Not much differently from trans-Pacific trade some 100-150 years ago.
If somebody would come up with a transport solution that wouldn't require massive infrastructure investments (for which there is no money), and which would be safer and faster than current trucks, Africa could start changing very quickly. And there would probably be a decent profit in that.
Where to start? Could locally-produced, solar-powered small airships do the thing?