Africa: A land of innumerable opportunities for RFID industry

For the past few months I have been scouting for places around the globe where RFID would have a good opportunity to expand its wings. One such continent is Africa which presents innumerable opportunities for this technology to create an impact over there. It is experiencing a change in the sense that the awareness regarding the technology has been increasing coupled with its gradual adoption. At the moment it’s pretty slow but in the future we could see it gaining momentum in this poor continent which has always been looked down upon for being an underdeveloped continent.

Now let’s take a look at the factors which are expected to create a surging demand for RFID applications. Africa is vouching for RFID since it is looking forward to plug theft and counterfeiting. Secondly it can bring up the efficacy of the processes which can bring up the overall productivity levels.

I believe that RFID vendors can sense a serious opportunity for themselves in Africa. There are a lot of greenfield opportunities available where early adopters could certainly gain. In the case of Africa mining, asset management and supply chain is expected to surge demand for RFID applications in a big way.

Even though there are vast opportunities for the vendors but there are certain factors which are hindering its adoption. Most of the companies in Africa are small or medium scale enterprises and with the high cost of deployment associated with most of the RFID applications it would not be a suitable proposition for them and this is the primary reason why most of them are still clinging on to bar codes. It could be a problem implementing RFID in the manufacturing sector out there since a lot of metallic objects are incorporated which don’t gel with the technology.

Lack of collaboration too has been hampering the growth of the technology. Another factor is the shortage of proper infrastructure which has been inhibiting the growth of RFID out there. Even though there are a lot of challenges on the technical front in Africa but the future looks pretty bright out there since the prices of RFID are continuing to fall. Low cost tags would certainly serve the purpose of low value markets and the industry has now started to target the market in RFID in a planned and phased manner so that its benefit can be realized in the long run.

Though Africa presents a lot of opportunities but it still needs to be seen how quick the RFID industry is able to react and latch on to this opportunity presented to them.