Automation, the process in which computers perform tasks assigned to them in order to complete them much more efficiently and effectively. The process of automation can be beneficial to a lot of industries in Africa. It can help with reducing mistakes during production and speed up processes in various sectors within business, healthcare agriculture and many other industries.
The concept was first introduced in the automotive industry in 1946 by Henry Ford when he developed the assembly line to help speed up the process of car manufacturing. Today automation is widely used and connects a variety of systems substituting human efforts with computerized inputs.

In agro-processing automation is a alien concept. A survey conducted in four countries found out that half of them implemented automated technology. Of course, there are factors influence this namely; the cost of labour, size of the business, skills of the workforce and many more. The process of automation in agro-processing will not create issues such as displacing people from work but rather assist with making certain tasks a little bit easier and increasing the efficiency of the tasks.

There is a worry that automation could price out several African countries from being able to exploit the market due to cost. However, there will be opportunities for people to produce items of lower quality and also cheaper products. People would therefore be able to trade domestically, which in recent times has seen an increase in intra-Africa trade shares over the past decade. 

With companies seeking to reduce cost of workforce and the reliance being placed on how to produce more products, it has placed great concern amongst people who are reliant on work to provide for their families. However, more jobs are being made available and some which rely on human input are out there. This creates opportunities for people with certain skills to also provide and be part of the working class, especially in developing countries. 

Finding ways to better the economy and improving the lives of many is what people should aim for. Automation has played a vital role in how the future of many industries have been shaped and has changed a lot in how people do things. It is up to us to see where we can serve certain industries to benefit our countries and improve the lives of the people who live in it.